


Into the Fire

by Reversepyramid



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 12:17:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 25,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10162850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reversepyramid/pseuds/Reversepyramid
Summary: Jill and Rihlus endure the invasion of the Reapers together, right up until the end.





	1. Eve of the Convention

“Jill, Do we have any actual food?” sighed Rihlus as he rummaged through the tiny shelves and cabinets in their hotel room. Fairly short as Turians go, with a pale colour to his skin and black markings on his face, Rihlus was still getting used to being on Earth. He had been on the Human homeworld for just under a full day and the only food he could safely eat were small pre made meals he had packed himself. 

Jill was his best and only friend. Tall as humans go, almost equalling his height, Jill had a lot of what humans called freckles across her entire face and neck with scruffy black hair hiding all but a few of them. She didn’t even seem to hear him, instead she floated around the room admiring their accommodation and snapping holo’s of their view of the city. 

“Holy shit!” yelled Jill as she stepped out onto their balcony. “Rihlus Come look at this!” Despite insistence from his stomach to continue the hunt for food, he relented and stalked out onto the balcony with Jill. Following her gaze and wild gesturing, Rihlus leant over the edge to see a brightly coloured plastic creature snaking its way through a crowd of people, darting left and right, stopping to rear its head over families at a small restaurant and pretend to devour them.   
“What is that!?” Rihlus asked, not having learnt of this addition to Earth’s lifeforms.   
“It’s a Dragon, not real, there’s people inside and they control it.” Silently they watched as the Dragon got a round of applause and continued on its way down the river walk. 

“Hey there guys!” Came an extremely cheerful voice. To their left another man had stepped out to admire the view. He gave a brief wave before he stepped close to the waist high barrier separating the balconies. Rihlus was so focused on what was happening below him that the voiced startled him enough to be visibly scared.   
“Oh, sorry bud, just saying hi, don’t get to see many of your lot here” The cheerful man, now visible below a small light, was quite tall, hairy and was wearing only a small pair of shorts. Rihlus nodded curtly in return, so as not to insult the man. Jill however perked up at their neighbours greeting.  
“Hey there yourself! Nice night right?” The man nodded lazily, took a sip of a beer he seemed to pull from thin air and leaned further across to their side of the balcony. “You guys must be here for either the footy, or...” the man trailed off as he strained to remember the other possibility. 

Jill beat him to it.   
“PAX?” She said with a wide grin, the man chuckled and snapped his fingers.  
“Right, that’s it, so gamers are ya?”   
“We’ve never had the chance to get to one of these conventions and we’ve been playing together for almost two years, so, figured we’d make a big deal of it” Jill beamed. Rihlus didn’t offer any input, besides looking up at the mention of his name, he wasn’t particularly social and left it up to Jill. The man straightened up from his spot on the balcony, took another long drink from his beer and held it up slightly.  
“Well, i’m getting pretty pissed so i’ll let you two get back to it.” As he said this he swayed slightly.   
“Thanks, you too.” said Jill, Rihlus also gave a quick nod. And with a final wave the man ambled back into his room.

“Weren’t you were dying of hunger?” Said Jill as she joined Rihlus who was now on the opposite side of the balcony, watching a swath of people screaming and chanting their way down the street, all dressed in the same coloured outfits.   
“That’s about one of your sports teams right? The one you like?” Jill just shook her head and laughed.  
“Nope, that’s a local sport, I prefer something from my country, colours are just similar”.

Becoming such good friends had allowed Jill to not be bothered by Rihlus’s sometimes rigid nature, and for Rihlus to not let her teasing get to him.   
“But, yes, i’m probably going to die soon without food so, can we go out and find something?” Rihlus reiterated, looking, at least to Jill, both eager and truly starved.   
“Alright, there’s not many places that do mixed menu’s but the Hotel said there was a place on the other side of the river” She said, grabbing her old purple jacket from atop her luggage.   
“When we get back want to play something?” Rihlus asked, but the only reply was a singular “Ha” as they both headed out the door.


	2. At the Convention

“You got the tickets!?” Rihlus shouted at the toilet door.   
“No, I ate them, they were delicious, of course I have the damn tickets!” Came the muffled reply. Rihlus chuckled, returning to pacing the hotel room while Jill performed her human preparations. Looking out through the window the city was bustling, surprising even Rihlus who lived on the Citadel. Eventually Jill emerged from her tiny fortress. The game that they’d met through and become friends in was a big reason for why they chose this city’s event in particular. Jill was wearing a white shirt with artwork she’d designed herself scrawled across it. Towards the bottom she’d left a patch of empty space for an autograph from the lead voice actress who was going to be part of one of the main panels today. Rihlus new Jill was extremely nervous about meeting her, having almost cried when she heard that her idol would be attending. 

“Look good?” asked Jill, gesturing to herself as if she weren’t convinced in the slightest. “You look fine, c’mon we’re gonna be late, grab your bag and lets go.” Said Rihlus not really stopping to give Jill a reason to change. Heading out into the streets Jill and Rihlus made slow progress as they constantly had to check their omni tools to see where they were headed. Finally they found a bridge to get them across the river and arrived at their destination, the Convention and Exhibition Centre. The lines to get in were long but moving fairly quickly. The only other people they could see were Humans, with a stray Salarian or Asari. Rihlus received a few sideways glances from time to time, but most people never said or did anything. 

As the line moved forward a noise could be heard from a fair distance away. A pair of Alliance Fighters were darting in across the city and behind them, another pair, splitting off and heading almost straight up. The entire crowd watched as they shrieked past and off into the distance. Rihlus didn’t seem all that phased, but looking down Jill was clearly a bit more concerned.   
“You ok?” he asked, tapping her on the shoulder.   
“Oh, yeah, just weird. Never seen that before, not in atmosphere anyway.” The crowd seemed about as concerned as Rihlus and eventually Jill and he got to talking about what they would say when getting any autographs, completely forgetting the fighters.

Finally they got through the front entrance and with only a few minutes before the panel started, they rushed off, barely stopping to enjoy their surroundings, eager to get some seats. Within moments of sitting down the panel started and with each face being announced and walking on stage Jill could barely contain her excitement, clapping and cheering as loud as everyone else. When the object of Jills affection walked up on stage she grabbed Rihlus’s arm, holding onto it as if he were an anchor of some sort. Eventually they opened the floor up to questions and Jill shot her hand up so fast it almost detached and to end the panel, a brand new trailer for a sequel to the series was shown leaving Jill and Rihlus almost too ecstatic to think clearly.

With their next appointment for autographs being almost an hour away, Jill and Rihlus agreed food was a priority. Outside food stands had set up, lying in wait for all the convention goers.   
“You mind grabbing food while I find a table?” Jill asked, already exhausted. Rihlus gave her a pat on the head and wandered off to an Alien food stand. Jill managed to find a table with a large umbrella built in to the table top. After about ten minutes Rihlus strode over to their table, dropping his trove of food.   
“Aw well aren’t you a gentlemen, you even got my favourite flavour”. Jill sighed contentedly. Awkwardly arranging himself into a sitting position, Rihlus reach into his bag of food and pulled out his chosen treats.   
“It’s those green ones you hate right? And the Blue ones?” Jill nodded before giving a mock shudder.  
“So, after these autographs, I didn’t have anything to do here that I can’t do tomorrow when we come back, did you want to explore the city?” As Rihlus devoured his paste type food he nodded his agreement.   
“Sounds like a plan, but for dinner can we order from our Hotel? I asked the reception people and they said there’s a menu with actual food for me” wiggling his current substitute food in the air as his example. 

So not to be caught in an extreme line up again the pair made their way back indoors early. The line was still extensive but near the front Jill could just make out the one person she wanted to see more than any other. Closer and closer she got to the front of the line. Eventually meeting one of the developers, a fairly young man with unkempt hair and the smell of a bit too much aftershave. They chatted for a bit and she discussed how she and Rihlus had become friends through their game which garnered the pair each some specially signed artwork.

Forward they moved and eventually Jill and Rihlus came face to face with their idol. Rihlus was not so easily embarrassed or overwhelmed and shook her hand first to give Jill some time to compose herself. The actress caught on pretty quick that Jill just needed a little nudge to break her stupor, so reaching out over the tabletop she grabbed Jill’s hand and shook it. Jill’s response was to snort with laughter and then begin rambling her love of her work and the main character she voiced in the game. Rihlus didn’t say anything much after that, instead letting Jill have her moment. It started out so awkwardly but with a few light hearted jokes and questions Jill started to sound more like herself. With a signing of Jill’s shirt in the spot she had pre planned and a quick hug that Rihlus captured with a holo, they were on their way.   
“Thanks for that, i can’t believe we met her.” Jill sighed, cheeks still a bright red. Rihlus pulled up the holo he took, and sent it to Jill’s Omni Tool. The entire walk from the signing to the entrance Jill just stared at the image, almost crashing into several people along the way.


	3. Final Night

“Alright…” Jill sighed as they were reunited with the intense heat of the outdoors. “Time to explore? Where to first?” Rihlus pulled up the map again and there were a few places he had pre pinned that were close by to their Hotel. After a few hours of touring the city, the last pin on the map was a war memorial/museum. Jill wasn’t a huge war buff like Rihlus and most other Turians but her friend seemed excited to see what humans thought of war. Old wars, hundreds of years passed were still displayed to large crowds. Jill knew of some, but others were just too far before her lifetime to have any real meaning. 

Once Rihlus had his fill of warfare they wandered back outside to find the sun had started setting.   
“I’m getting pretty hungry again, call it a night and grab some food?” Jill asked, already aiming in the direction of their accommodation. Just as Rihlus was about to reply his Omni Tool started flashing, he was getting a message.   
“Who was it?” Jill asked, but Rihlus just shook his head   
“Says it’s my Mother but… the message isn’t loading, that’s really weird, I just had this fixed and updated.” Jill moved up alongside him, looking to see if she could help.   
“We were both playing together last night right? No issues?”   
“Yeah I dunno...oh, wait, here it is, it’s just audio, video would take forever to reach me.” The two moved out of earshot of anyone else and played the recording. A loud static noise burst out immediately, interspersed with other heavy unclear noises.   
“She not much of a technology person?” Jill laughed softly. Rihlus gave a small chuckle too.  
“Nope” He added, “She always lets me or Father do it.” After a few more attempts Rihlus gave in. “I can maybe clear it up but not here, let’s head home and I can look into it over food.” Jill nodded and the two made their way back to the Hotel.

As the duo reached the Hotel it was getting onto Eight at night. Heading the opposite way were swarms of football fans, the two teams colours scattered as far as they could see. One man, already heavily intoxicated leapt in front of Rihlus and attempted to pick him up and carry him with them, as the colour of Rihlus’s clothes matched those of this drunk man’s team. At first Jill worried Rihlus might take offence but he simply patted the man on the shoulder and guided the man into another group of supporters, at which point all memory of the Turian left the drunk man and he continued on with his new friends.

“Where are they even headed?” Rihlus asked, scanning the streets for some sign of this football. Jill leant in as close to his field of view as she could.   
“See that big building there?” She gestured “The big one that goes around at the edges? That’s where they’re headed. I know that that one has been here a looong time.” Rihlus brought it up on his Omni Tool.   
“Wow, big place...” He said, admiring the images posted and live feed from inside. As they stood admiring, the same sound from earlier in the day emerged again. This time, from just to the right of the Stadium seven Alliance fighters could be seen tearing across the skies. Just before they were on top of them 4 of the fighters broke off and made a beeline for a military based located in that general direction. The others continued on their way. As they flew over head, everyone on the streets below ducked and covered their ears. Whilst still high enough to not hit any buildings, they were flying extremely low.   
“That’s the second time today, think we should be worried?” Jill asked, not looking at Rihlus but the direction the Fighters headed.   
“I wouldn’t worry about it, the chances of anything happening on Earth are remote.”


	4. The Balcony

Walking through the Hotel entrance, Jill broke off to organise a meal for the night whilst Rihlus continued up to their room, eager to get to work on repairing his mothers message. Quickly he opened their room door and strode over to a small desk to begin his work. Again he played the message and same as before, nothing but static was audible, or it seemed that way. Pulling up some basic editing programs he’d installed for fun, he opened up the file and began attempting to clean up the message. A few minutes later Rihlus had managed to find a trace of a voice.   
“Mother, one day you need to listen to me when I try to explain technology” Rihlus sighed to himself, imagining the conversation he’d be having with her later on regarding what she did wrong. After fiddling with the settings enough he made another attempt to run the audio, just as Jill came through the door, joining him at the desk. 

The first few seconds passed, the constant static was still there but much quieter. At the ten second mark the static built slightly and a voice shouted only a few words through. “Rihlus?!....Where?!....Don’t?!...” The message stopped.   
“Was that your mother?” Jill asked insistently, leaning right over Rihlus’ shoulder now. “Yes, well I’m sure it was, I don’t understand though...”. Rihlus started to fiddle with the message again but before he could get far the sounds of the fighters began to return. Jill rose up and rushed to the balcony, forcing the doors open faster than they were design to. Over the city another pair of fighters was flying from the left of her view to the right, but as they came into line with the stadium they flew directly up and out of sight through a layer of cloud that had set in. 

A few seconds passed before the clouds lit a fiery yellow and down came one of the fighters, engulfed in flames, spiralling towards the ocean.   
“Rihlus!” Jill shouted, to which the Turian rushed over to join her, eyes following the fireball falling from the sky. To their right, not a kilometre across the city, something else broke through the clouds. Sinking down and landing atop a flat, wide office building, crushing it beneath what appeared to be enormous legs. The massive ship seemed to struggle ever so briefly, as if its own weight would bring it down, before rising back up and releasing a deafening mechanical roar across the city.

Below the pair, hundreds of people had stopped what they were doing, staring at these invaders, but within seconds of landing, the machine fired bright red beams of energy into its captive audience. From the first beam, the people began running, stampeding away from this unknown mechanical horror. After a few more shots the power in the building and others nearby went out as something blocked from sight, exploded in a white flash. The only light now coming from the beams fired from the machine. Rihlus backed away from the window, dragging Jill with him.   
“Stay down!” He ordered. They could hear the screams of people below them, windows smashing as they no doubt tried to find shelter indoors.

After only a minute the black machine had begun striding slowly across the city towards the still lit stadium, it’s red beams devouring anyone caught within them. Just before it reached its destination another ship joined the fight, this time though it was an Alliance ship. A massive war vessel floated down through the sky, firing head on at the invader. Distracted by its new enemy the invader began turning and firing up at the threat. But the ship was moving to attack from its side and the machine couldn’t rotate fast enough given its legged, bulky nature.. The black ship was taking so much fire that Rihlus stood up and crept towards the balcony window, trying to get a better look of this machine being brought down. Despite the assault, once the invader managed to right its position and re aim its weapons, three pin point shots right into the guts of the Alliance vessel were all that were needed to render their potential saviour of the city a burning wreck. Not bothering to continue that fight, the invader returned to its original purpose and, once its position had corrected, began firing freely into the stadium, punching holes clean through the walls, demolishing others and sending it crashing in on itself.

As the horrific scene came to a close, the machine refocused its attention on something further on from the rubble that was once the stadium.   
“Should we leave?” Jill whispered to Rihlus, but he swiftly shook his head   
“No, we’re safe here for now, we need to know where we’re going first”. Jill didn’t respond, attempting to be more convincing he added “Look, it’s heading away anyway, wait for...” Before he could finish a hot rush of air raced through their room, blowing everything out of place and flinging Jill’s luggage all over the room. As the wind died down the building began to shudder and within metres of their window a second Invader landed, scraping down the side of an adjacent building revealing a large number of hotel rooms. Some people inside were knocked out, falling to their deaths below as their floor gave way. 

The machine raised itself up and began firing, releasing a mechanical roar much like its counterpart. The noise this close was deafening. Jill and Rihlus huddled together, covering their faces and ears as best they could. At this point the emergency power came on, though it struggled to do so. Gradually red lights lit the dark room and a calm voice began giving directions for emergencies such as fires. As the noise died down and the machine began to move down the street outside, the sky behind the Invader re appeared. Stretching across the entire expanse that wasn’t occupied by cloud, meteors were appearing, some speeding across the sky at a blinding speed and landing close to the city, others disappearing with the curvature of the Earth.


	5. Saviors

One fireball, destined to land across the river, ricochetted off of a building and smashed itself into the bottom of Jill and Rihlus’ Hotel. Again the building shook, shattering every remaining window in the room. Jill managed to protect her face, suffering only a few cuts to her arm, but Rihlus took a face full of small shards. Luckily being a Turian this had little to no effect. Instead he shot up from their hiding place and ran over to the balcony. Being midway up the building he could make out a good amount of what happened at the ground floor. Whatever had smashed into the building made it deep into the foyer and people were sprinting out, running from some kind of firefight. A few people were struck by these mystery shooters but most managed to get away.

Another rush of air hit Rihlus and, fearing another Machine he pulled away from the edge, only to look up and come face to face with an open door of an Alliance shuttle. Standing inside were a dozen marines. Seeing the shuttle arrive, Jill dashed over, assuming it meant an escape. Standing in the shuttle doorway, a young woman leant out and yelled down to the pair.   
“Stay inside your rooms!” She cried out. The shuttle began taking fire from below and the woman had to duck back inside briefly. Shifting closer to the balcony the woman yelled again   
“We’ll be clearing out this building, wait for us to knock on your door! Do NOT leave!” And with that the shuttle moved a few floors lower and the woman began the shouting the same instructions to another room.

Jill moved towards the door and peered through the tiny peep hole. The hall was empty and the glow from the lifts was gone, replaced by the eerie red of the emergency systems. A man and three children appeared through a fire exit, terrified and unsure where to go, they aimed for the stairs up to the next level. Rihlus appeared next to her.   
“Is something out there?” he asked, taking Jills place at the peep hole.   
“Yeah, some kids and their dad.” Without asking Rihlus opened the door and shouted down to the family.   
“Here! Over Here!” The man snapped around and, hesitating at the sight of a Turian, guided his children through the door.   
“Thank you! Do you know what’s happening?” The man asked, clearly terrified but holding things together as best he could.   
“We don’t know, but Alliance are coming through the building shortly to get us out.”   
“You spoke with them?” He asked, disbelieving.  
“Yes, they flew past our window there and they gave instructions.”   
“Right, ok, thank you both” He shook their hands, gathered his children together and moved them into the bathroom.

Five minutes of silence followed, Jill kept an eye on the corridor and Rihlus began gathering essentials into a bag, passing any spare food to the man and his children. A distant growl caused the room to fall into silence. Jill slowly ducked down from the doorway and crawled towards Rihlus, gesturing to stay quiet. The growling got louder and louder as it approached the hallway outside. A shrill scream broke through as a hotel room was burst into, which was cut short immediately as the intruders fired their weapons, cutting down the occupants. Before the intruders could cause any more destruction, the sound of a door being blasted in followed by shouts and commands from Alliance forces brought life back to the room. Jill, Rihlus, the man and his children all rose and moved towards the entrance. A loud bashing on the door, followed by “Alliance Military! Is anyone alive in there!?”


	6. Escape

Jill smacked the button on the door revealing the half dozen Alliance Soldiers outside. “How many are with you?” The soldier asked, clearly not up for chatting.  
“Six, 3 children” Replied Rihlus, not inexperienced with the blunt nature of military. The soldier nodded and leaned in a bit closer to Rihlus, lowering his voice.  
“The stairway to the ground floor is clear but there’s a lot of carnage and bodies on the way down.” Rihlus looked towards the kids father who nodded, understanding what was about to happen and gathered his kids together. The solider continued.  
“Take a kid each, go as fast as you can and there will be more Alliance in the foyer organising survivors for evacuation.” The children’s father gathered up his youngest girl whilst Jill and Rihlus held the other two. The boy Rihlus held cried as the strange alien gathered him up but without much choice the group followed the soldiers out the door.

The first few floors down were merely damaged. A large number of wires were exposed and a few roof panels had fallen down, but it wasn’t until halfway down did they encounter a corpse. A Soldier that had been cut down lay in a grizzly mess in a corner, surrounded by grey skinned, humanoid corpses. Their faces appeared almost synthetic with hollow eyes, leathery skin with blue lighting running along their bodies. Further down they came across another scene, much worse than before. Three soldiers had been slain but going down the hallway were the bodies of their enemies. Bulbous creatures that, when seen up close had body parts of humans mixed with something else. Some had been torn to pieces in gunfire, others remained mostly intact but blood of all colours had been sprayed along the walls.

Finally the group reached the ground floor. Flashing lights of local law enforcement could be seen, but upon entering the foyer it was merely a police car that had careened into the side of the building. Soldiers rushed over and guided them to safety.  
“Is this your entire group?” One soldier asked.  
“Yes, there may be more but they hadn’t finished clearing the building when they found us.” Said Rihlus, placing the mans child down on the ground as did Jill.  
“Thank you, both of you.” Said the man, who then proceeded to hug both of them before being led away by some medical staff.  
“Are you two ok?” The soldier asked, to which Jill and Rihlus exchanged glances, did a quick pat down and nodded in response.  
“What’s happening? Does anyone know?” Asked Jill.  
“I’m sorry, I don’t know, but in a minute we’re sending you with a group of others to meet with a shuttle. They’ll explain things if they can.” As the soldier finished, another fiery ball smashed into a tree outside, setting it aflame. From within, a collection of the bulbous monsters from before crawled out and began firing wildly at whoever they could see. Thanks to their dramatic entrance however it was of no significant surprise and they were gunned down as quickly as they arrived.

Jill and Rihlus joined a group of twelve others near a military vehicle, all employees of the Hotel bar plus one young girl wearing a maintenance uniform. From inside the vehicle a tall, bulky soldier emerged and waved at the group to follow him. An Alliance shuttle flew in as they trailed him, landing down the street in an intersection. The streets were deserted for now but in the distance flashes of light could be seen at random intervals, mixed with the mechanical exaltations of the Invaders. The shuttle opened and everyone poured inside. Without waiting, the shuttle closed its doors and flew off across the city. A speaker scratched into life as the shuttle pilot made an announcement.  
“Ok everyone, listen up please.” Came the voice, “I’ll be dropping you off in about 10 minutes, you’ll need to board another shuttle that will be taking you as far from Earth as they can. Please follow any directions we give you and you’ll make it out of here safely.” The cabin fell silent as the shuttle rattled its way to their destination. 

After only a few minutes of calm the shuttle lurched violently downwards, sending the passengers falling over each other inside.  
“Hold on to something guys!” Shouted the stressed voice of the pilot, as the shuttle made another hard turn, this time heading back up and to the right. Before anyone could get their bearings back, a bright flash filled the cabin, followed by a deafening “Bang!”. The cabin swirled with wind as part of the shuttle fell away from the rear, leaving enough of a hole to see outside. 

Behind them, tracking them, Jill could easily see what looked like a giant red camera. Keeping perfect pace and distance, firing a red beam at their shuttle, not unlike that of the giant war machines. The pilot was trying his hardest to lose their pursuer but it never fell behind and when the pilot finally stayed still long enough to shoot down, the flying red eye did so. The piece of ship that had detached was merely a chunk of metal, a near miss, this second shot hit the rear thrusters dead on, sending the shuttle violently forward before beginning to spiral downwards. 

The flying red eye did not bother chasing them. As it’s red beam struck the shuttle, Jill saw it break off, looking for trouble elsewhere. The view outside then turned skyward and all that could be seen was the dark night sky, filled with orange meteors.  
“Jill!” Rihlus yelled as he fought the effects of their rapid descent, grabbing onto her and covering her with as much of his form as he could, keeping low. Others in the cabin, screaming and barely able to stand tried to follow their lead, but it was too late. The shuttle smashed into the ground nose first, pulverising their pilot, bouncing back up and cartwheeling to a halt alongside a building.


	7. Crash Site and the City

Jill opened her eyes, her skull pulsing with a dull ache. She could see Rihlus’ unconscious face next to hers. The shuttle was mostly demolished and no one else was moving. Flashes and gunfire outside slowly became brighter and louder, alongside the bizarre shrieks of the bulbous enemy.

“...Rihlus?” She squeaked out, trying to push his heavy form off of her. He moaned and began to move his leg. As he did, Jill felt a ridiculous burst of pain shoot up her entire body.   
“AHH! Fuck! Stop!” Rihlus, coming to his senses looked down to see, in an attempt to shield her, his leg spike had protruded through Jill’s thigh.   
“Dammit, uh, just stay still, I can’t take away my leg without opening a giant hole in yours” Jill, fully feeling the pain now, nodded quickly, occasionally looking down at her leg. 

A man nearby, a survivor from the shuttle, began to rise from a pile of bodies. He took one look at Jill and Rihlus and started to panic.   
“Hey! hey! we need your..” Before Rihlus could even ask for help, the man barged through the rubble and fled into the night. Rihlus just stayed motionless, bewildered by the frightened man.   
“Look, let’s just try and move, we have to keep going” said Jill but, much to her surprise, Rihlus put his Taloned hand firmly over her mouth and forced her lower as gunfire erupted nearby. 

Shouting could be heard as humans fired at some unseen assailants. Rihlus removed his hand off of Jill as she began squirming from the pain. A few shots puckered the side of the shuttle, some breaking through and hitting the opposite side. After about thirty seconds the gunfire ceased and human voices began shouting at each other.   
“Here! Check for survivors!” Before anyone got through Rihlus shouted back   
“Hello! We’re in here but we’re injured!”. At that another unseen voice shouted in regards to a medic. Finally, a figure stepped into the wreckage, gun trained on the entangled duo. “You’re hurt?” The soldier asked.   
“Yes, my leg is stuck in hers, here” He said, pointing to the injury.   
“Shit, ok, we’re getting someone to come in but we haven’t got much time, we might need to move soon, think you can do that?” Jill and Rihlus exchanged unsure glances before slowly, unconvincingly nodding.

Within a minute another person entered the wreckage, a middle aged woman wearing slightly different attire to her comrades.   
“Wow, how’d you manage that?” She said cheerfully. “All fun and games ain’t it till someone gets too rowdy in the sack.” She continued, trying to keep up the positive attitude. Jill, despite everything snorted a laugh, before another burst of pain knocked the grin off of her face.   
“Ok guys, we can’t sort this out here, you’re gonna need surgery on that leg and pulling him out of you..” the medic paused, smiling at her own sense of humour “will just cause more trouble.” Jill and Rihlus nodded their understanding. The medic stood up and spoke to the soldier standing watch. The soldier then ran outside, returning with another soldier and a stretcher. The medic knelt down, leaning over the impalement.   
“Ok, this Medigel is going to do its thing, it should help prevent any infection, but do your best to not move and you should be separated in no time.” The medic rose and allowed the soldiers to assist moving the pair onto the stretcher. Rihlus, being a lot heavier, almost caused them to tip over, eliciting another burst of pain and accompanying cry from Jill.

Once outside everyone began moving away from the shuttle, down a long wide street, no intention on waiting for another transport. Despite Jill’s pain, she barely made a sound as they were jostled around on their stretcher. Above them, whatever calamity had taken hold of the city was now in full swing. Red eyed ships like the ones that shot them down pursued Alliance fighters. The fiery meteors that dotted the night sky were endless and the ever present roar from the machines could be heard in the distance.   
“Where are we going” Rihlus asked one of the stretcher holders.   
“Evac sir, you were headed to us but didn’t make it.” Rihlus didn’t respond but a strained “Thank...you” came from Jill, in between her attempts to manage her own breathing.

Despite what was occurring around them, the path they were taking was deserted. In fact, it was clear that the tragedy unfolding had already visited this area of the city. Bodies lined the streets, some in better condition than others. As they moved, Rihlus could see the black outlines, burnt remains of people unfortunate enough to be caught in the giant red beams. Turning another corner, the culprit for this destruction was slowly making its way through the city. Far enough off that it posed no threat, but still close enough to make out a good amount of detail, the ship was facing away, firing down below it, carving a path of death ahead of it. Its hull resembled some kind of crustacean, its legs seemingly clumsy and awkward always found their mark in the ground, never appearing unbalanced despite the height and size of the frame they supported.

“Ok guys, not far, then we’ll get you out of here” The medic had run up alongside, checking the injury to Jill’s leg. “You’re coping pretty well, had a turian stuck in you before?” Said the medic, still pleased at her own humour.   
“I’m ...a nurse” Jill said between breaths. “Seen ... worse” she tried to smile as she spoke but was clearly in a lot of pain.   
“Sorry babe, no painkillers on me, before we send you off you’ll get plenty, don’t worry”. This got a laugh from Jill.  
“Ha..Awesome” She said. The medic gave Jill a pat to the shoulder and dropped back a little to talk with another Soldier. 

“You ok” Rihlus asked, quiet enough so only she could hear. She shook her head, her eyes scrunching every time a wave of pain shot up from her leg. Rihlus looked down at the injury, what was a fairly “clean” wound before was now leaking blood. The movement of their journey was not helping, too much longer and they could damage her even further, if they hadn’t already.


	8. Leaving Earth

An intense firefight was taking place further up the street. Occasionally dust would pop off of buildings as shots connected with their walls. This was their destination however and no matter how close they got the fighting only seemed to intensify. Suddenly a Soldier leapt through an already destroyed window frame, firing behind himself wildly. From where the man came, three humanoids scrambled through the same window. Quickly closing the distance between themselves and the solitary soldier. They hadn’t counted however on another team being right outside the window and before they could lay a finger on anyone, they were cut down where they stood.

“Fuck me, thanks for that, there’s just so many of them” He stood up and ran towards the group. “Base isn’t doing so well but we can get one last shuttle out of here, these the survivors?” The man asked one of his fellows.   
“Yup, she’s in bad shape though, can’t walk on her own, how long till we can get them out?” The medic queried, quickly bringing up her omni tool to scan Jills leg one last time. “Shuttle’s ready, just waiting on you then we’re breaking everything down and moving.” “How many are coming with us?” Rihlus asked, looking towards the lone soldier.   
“Just six mate.” And he ran off, taking as many with him to the edge of the street. 

“Ok, so, this is probably going to hurt a lot” The medic started, getting close to Jill’s face. “We need to move as quick as we can, over to a building on the other side of this one” She pointed through the large skyscraper they were standing near, aiming towards their goal. “No need to be quiet though, feel free to yell and scream ok?” The medic said with a smile. Jill gave a nervous laugh, not really convinced.

All but two of their groups soldiers left them, heading out into the street to join the fight. Quickly Jill, Rihlus and their carers moved out wide, steering clear of the fighting and moving around to join their evacuation. From their vantage point, Jill and Rihlus could see glimpses of the fight. The soldiers didn’t just manage to hold off the enemy but began pushing them back. What started as quite the force was now just a few bulbous creatures, not retreating but definitely not advancing as they were.

With a few final grenade detonations the area was wiped clean and everyone started heading back towards the evacuation area. The peace was short. Right where the enemy had been moments before, a smaller enemy Machine dropped down from the sky, landing just a few hundred metres from their location. With a roar like thunder, the machine righted itself and stared directly at them with its bright unfeeling eyes. The closest to the machine were simply gone as the machine fired its first beam. The ground vibrated as the weapon carved a groove into the ground, dissolving anything caught within it.

Momentarily Jill had forgotten her pain, but it came back fast and furious. The medic woman, still unfazed by nearly everything, pushed their group fast and towards a shuttle, parked inside a building with a small group of people huddled in a tight group, waiting for their departure to safety. As they reached the shuttle, the pilot stepped outside, running up to the medic.   
“Is this it!?” He shouted, trying to be heard over the roar of the attacking Machine.   
“This is them, get everyone on board and leave now, one of them just landed outside.” The pilot opened the shuttle door and herded everyone inside. The stretcher with Rihlus and Jill going last and lying on the floor. The medic came up to them a final time with a small satchel.   
“Alrighty, here’s what I promised, take these as often as you need them and inject this just near the puncture if it gets really bad yeah?” She gave Jill and Rihlus a brief salute, then left and ran off to help whoever else she could.

The shuttle kicked into life just as a massive leg of the Machine landed right outside their exit. They halted for a few moments as the machine fired at something farther up the city street. Everyone inside the shuttle was silent, willing the machine to move on. Suddenly loud thuds could be heard pummelling the outside of the shuttle. More of the humanoid creatures were now inside, banging on the shuttle, trying to reach their prey.  
“Don’t worry guys, they can’t get in, when this guy moves we’ll jet outta here.” Said the pilot threw the shuttle speakers. 

Still the machine stood, un moving, not firing. Another roar came from the machine, dulled from inside the shuttle, and after a few seconds another roar called back. At this the Machine outside began moving off, continuing on its original path. Once it had taken several steps beyond the exit, the shuttle rose off the ground and slowly inched out into the world. Free of its cage the shuttle rotated away from the Invader and jetted nearly straight up and into the sky. 

Silence continued until the pilot made an announcement.   
“Alright guys, we’re gonna be going through the Relay in this, we haven’t got any choice so get comfortable.” No one seemed too worried about this, merely happy to be leaving. “Where are we going?” Someone called back.   
“We’re re grouping with the Alliance at the Citadel, that’s where you all have to stay until you can figure out somewhere else to go or gain asylum at the Citadel itself.” Rihlus looked down to Jill, about to ask her something but she had passed out, breathing steadily but unconscious. Given their awkward entanglement he couldn’t easily lie down without hurting Jill so, he got as comfortable as he could. 

Surrounding survivors rewarded him with glares and darting eyes, pretending they were looking elsewhere. He was in fact the only non human on board.   
“Here, it’s full of clothes, you can rest on it” Said a soft voice from behind him. A young human girl was offering her belongings to Rihlus.   
“Oh, thank you” He looked at the girls father who smiled at his daughters compassion, silently nodding behind her, granting permission to take the girls offering. Arranging himself as best he could, Rihlus closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.


	9. The Citadel

Barely half an hour into their journey Jill had re awoken in a great deal of pain. The injection into her leg helped somewhat, but what she needed was medical care in a proper facility. With a sudden, intense feeling of vertigo the shuttle exited its jump through the Mass Relay.   
“Ok everyone, we’re here, gather your belongings and get ready to exit the shuttle.” The sigh of relief that swept through the shuttle was heartening. The child and her father began chatting about what they’d be doing when they got off and everyone else suddenly came to life, their fears broken for the time being.   
“We’ll be taking our injured duo off first so make room for medical staff to get inside.” The pilot added before turning on a small screen on either side of the shuttle, showing their approach to the Citadel. Rihlus felt Jill gripping his arm tightly. He looked down at her pained face. She wasn’t trying to communicate anything, just trying to cope with the pain.

Slowly the ghostly spectre inside the Nebular became The Citadel, the heart of the Galaxy. The Wards of the station enveloped tiny screens near the shuttle hatches, followed by the Presidium Ring. The lights of transports and shops and houses all twinkled along the stations arms as life continued as normal. The shuttle screens switched to front facing views showing their landing platform, a makeshift area filled with hundreds of people, all being guided to and fro by Citadel Security.

As the shuttle dropped onto the deck the pilot came into the back.   
“Ok guys you ready to go?” Rihlus nodded, as did Jill between waves of pain. The hatch opened and outside were half a dozen nurses waiting to get inside. “Here, on the ground, legs been skewered on this guy.” The pilot described bluntly. A Salarian brought his omni tool up to the problem area, assessing the damage.   
“No damage to femur, good, just need to extract Turian embedded in you.” Rihlus gave a chuckle to the confusion of the Salarian.   
“Ok, bring them out and onto the trolley.” He said, getting on with his work. The duo were lifted onto said trolley and rolled away, off of their escape vehicle and towards a Hospital.

Their tour of the Citadel was thankfully short and after rising a few elevator levels they were moved into surgery. Rihlus was removed from Jill’s leg fairly quickly but was whisked away into another room even faster while they went to work on Jill. An Asari nurse was his only company now as she pressed him for medical information. His attention however was focused on a televised news report just beyond his room. There was no sound though the images of the black Machines marching through cities was unmistakable. The Asari nurse was glancing at the same screen just as often.   
“Were you on Palavan?” She asked, finally giving in and watching the broadcast.   
“No... Earth, my family is on Palavan.” Was all he said as he stared at the frightening images of a personal recording from the streets. The nurse tore away finally and continued her line of questioning.   
“So, umm, where do you live?” She asked, refocusing on her chart details.  
“The Citadel, down in Tayseri Ward, I work at the concert hall.”  
“Oh, ok, rough few years huh?”  
“Could be better i guess, look, when will my friend be up and about?” The nurse hesitated to answer.  
“Well.. that depends on the surgery for her leg. Normally we’d be happy for you to wait here but we’re overcrowded with refugees.” Rihlus hung his head, running his talons across his crest.  
“She doesn’t really know the Citadel I don’t think, she won’t know where to go”  
“That’s ok, we’ll contact you as soon as she’s awake and you can help her find somewhere to stay.”

“Will you kick her out when she’s awake?”  
“We can’t have people lingering for too long but given her injuries we can’t just leave her on the streets. She’ll be here for at least a few days.” The Nurse reassured.  
“Thank you, are we done?”  
The nurse read her form and shook her head. “No, sorry, we still need to check you for any internal damage to your leg.”  
Another nurse walked in with a small plate of food and drink.   
“Hello sir, this is for you, we aren’t a restaurant but hopefully this will be enough”. Rihlus took the tray silently and turned back to the broadcast.   
“What’s happening on Palavan?” He asked, not taking his eyes away from the news. “Well... uh...” The nurse looked over to her counterpart for support. Rihlus spoke again before they could.   
“I have family there and they tried to contact me but were cut off.” He raised his talon, pointing to the news. “By those I’d imagine”.  
“Just after we got our first Batarian and Human arrivals we got our first Turians. They said the planet is going through something similar to Earth. I’m sorry.”   
“What are they?” Rihlus asked, looking right into the Asari’s eyes. “Well, apparently they’re called Reapers.”


	10. Rise and Shine

A shrill beeping snapped Rihlus out of his slumber. His Omni Tool was receiving a call. “Hello. Who is it?” Rihlus snapped, a bit less friendly than he intended.  
“Hello is this Rihlus Avarius?” In an attempt to reach a light switch, Rihlus tripped on the corner of his living room table and smacked his forehead into the wall.  
“Argh, Fuck, dammit, sorry, uh, yes, yes you have the right person, who is this?”  
“Ah, excellent, this is Maria from Huerta Memorial, your partner Jillian has woken and we are calling as promised to let you know. Do you wish to come in to see her?”  
“Oh that’s great, thanks, yes I’ll be there as soon as I can, thank you again.”  
“Not a problem sir, we’ll see you soon, just hit the buzzer outside the door and we’ll let you in.”

Grabbing the gift he’d wrapped, Rihlus ran downstairs to the Rapid Transit terminal and flew off towards the Presidium. On the chair next to him he’d brought along a physical, limited edition of their favourite game, something Jill had been looking to buy while they were on Earth. 

Pulling into an open space, Rihlus jumped out of his skycar and jogged in to the Hospital. Buzzing the door a few times, a human nurse came to the door to let him in. Rihlus signed in and was guided to Jill’s room, overlooking a notorious nightclub entrance.  
“Hey! There you are” Jill said as she turned in her bed. Her face was fairly pale and she had lost some weight since they’d arrived.  
“Hey yourself, how’re you feeling?” The nurse returned to her desk, leaving the pair to talk. “Pretty shit, my leg is still attached though so that’s something.” She pulled down the sheet to show the scar from her surgeries.  
“Pretty great huh? Turians like scars right?” She said, sporting a huge grin. 

“So I hear, you been up long?” Rihlus pulled a chair closer to Jill’s bed and sat down.  
“Nah, nurse says i’ve been out for a week now, induced.” Jill sighed, running hands through her uncombed hair.  
“How you feeling? I mean really, not the witty joke version”  
“I’m alright, leg really hurts still and nurse says i’m gonna have trouble sleeping for a bit, with the pain.” Jill sighed, dreading the coming sleepless nights.  
“Well, that’s actually something i’d been planning on talking to you about.” Rihlus leant down, cradling his head with his hands.  
“Oh yeah? What’s up?”  
“You won’t be able to move well for a while and, well, you can’t go home so, you’re welcome to stay with me here.”

“Yeah, the nurse explained what’s happening on Earth. Trying not to think about it.” Jill pinched the bridge of her nose as she spoke.  
“Sorry, I know it’s hard, I can’t help but hear about Palavan too.”  
“Any word from your family?” Jill asked, wincing from a moment of pain.  
“Yes, they’re safe but can’t reach the Citadel yet. My relative married some wealthy Asari and they live on Thessia so, they’ve moved there for now.”  
“That’s good. Well, I’d love to take you up on that offer, thanks.”  
“Excellent, i’ll sort out a space for you. Oh, and before I forget, I got this for you.” Rihlus withdrew Jill’s gift from behind him, holding it aloft for her.  
“Yeah? Well isn’t that swe.... are you fucking kidding me?!?” Jill’s eyes bulged as she registered the designs on the cover.  
“Nope, all yours, we can play it when you’re settled in. Sound good?” Rihlus beamed, thrilled at Jill’s excitement.  
“Sounds fucking perfect, I can’t believe you found it.”  
“Yeah, I thought it might have sold out but, well, guess it hadn’t.”  
Jill went to hug him but instantly regretted it as the shift in weight sent a barb of pain up her side. Rihlus just chuckled and went to her instead.


	11. Back on the Horse

“We need Milk!” Shouted Jill from the kitchen. Rihlus shuddered at the thought of that gross white liquid humans drank. They even put it in their food.   
“Well, get some yourself, you can walk now.” A hand poked out from around the corner to the kitchen as Jill raised her middle finger at him.

Since Jill had moved in the main living room had become a makeshift bedroom. They’d even organised a mattress for her to sleep on, something she wouldn’t allow Rihlus to buy on his own. They even bought a chair for her to sit on and rest her leg. Rihlus was worried she would be messy and their friendship would strain in such close proximity however the home was always tidy and Jill made a point of cleaning every day given her lack of employment. Rihlus suspected this was more to keep her mind off of the events that led them hear, something she still didn’t talk about for very long.

“Look we can head in tomorrow and grab some ok? I’m tired and you have a whole cake in their to eat!” He shouted back.   
“Oh right...” Came the quiet voice of realisation. Slowly Jill made her way back to her chair, a stiff limp still evident in her stride.   
“Any pain today?” Rihlus asked.   
“Wittle bit, noffin too bod” she replied, mouth full of cake. Rihlus rolled his eyes and tuned into the news. A tired older man appeared on screen, detailing the latest newsworthy events. A blue bar was scrolling across the bottom of the screen, indicating some type of breaking news.   
“...we’ve been reporting today, the Genophage...” Rihlus leapt in his seat as his Omni Tool began chirping.   
“Ah, hello?” He answered.   
“Hey buddy, you able to come into work today? We had a few people call in sick and that play is starting tonight.” Rihlus looked over to Jill who gave a thumbs up between mouthfuls.   
“Yeah sure, what time?” Rihlus stood up and took his call into the kitchen. 

Jill had been looking forward to their lunch. She hadn’t been out a lot yet and was hoping to get a longer walk in than just to the fridge and back.   
“Hey, sorry, we can head out the next day though if you’re up to it.” Said Rihlus, striding back into the room and sitting down.   
“It’s fine, I’ll still head out though, Physio was talking about this nice cafe up on the Presidium. Has a nice view apparantly..” She added, before taking another bite, her smirk not hidden particularly well.   
“Pfft, I know who you mean, am I going to need bail money?” Rihlus asked, but his only reply was a cake filled grin.   
“Ok, i’m gonna get ready. Heading out soon?” Rihlus asked as he grabbed his uniform, laid across a chair.   
“Once you’re gone, yeah.”

The scar on her leg was still fairly defined. Getting dressed usually took ten minutes longer while she just stared at her leg, poking the scar tissue. It wasn’t as though she needed to worry about people staring, she wore long pants regularly anyway, but it wasn’t going away any time soon.   
“Hey, you good?” Came the muffled voice of Rihlus through the door.   
“Yeah, just getting dressed, you headed off?” Jill replied, attempting to sound chipper. “Yup, just turn the lights out when you go and let me know how you’re doing, I'll keep checking my messages. Bye”.

Each step was incredibly awkward, with the sloped walkways and stairs everywhere, Jill had to grab a handrail more than a few times. Up ahead she could see the cafe she was aiming for, it was fairly empty which was ideal, only two groups of older Human women stopping for a morning chat plus a young Asari, Turian couple laughing at each others silly jokes. The Asari standing at the counter wreaked of boredom, going about her tasks as if she were stuck in slow motion.

“Um, hello?” Jill chimed, grabbing the Asari’s attention. Apparently having a customer only made her lethargy worse as she turned and almost rolled her eyes at having to attend to another persons needs.   
“Yes, what would you like?” She drawled.   
“Um, wow, well just a coffee please, black, and one of these.” Jill pointed towards a large Scone trapped inside a display.   
“I’ll bring your coffee over shortly “The Asari drawled, still making sure her low enthusiasm was well noted. Jill turned towards the seating area and found a small table at the back, away from the others. Her leg still wasn’t used to sitting and standing, thus her process to be seated took a few attempts. 

Almost immediately her coffee and scone arrived and without a word the Asari placed it on the table and drifted back to her counter. A quick sip proved her Physio correct however, the coffee was amazing and the scone close to perfect.   
“Holy shit that’s good” Jill said out loud, to which the group of ladies looked over and glared. Jill mouthed an apology before settling back into her chair and watching the people go to and fro past the cafe.


	12. Kerberos

The walk to lunch had been a hell of an effort already. Without any obligations Jill decided she would just hang around the cafe till they booted her out. Over the next hour the crowds began to arrive. Not many came into the cafe, however the store counters nearby were frantic with people buying all sorts of oddities from weapons, to household appliances to medicine. Jill had been missing this, ever since Earth every day was filled with physical pain, memories of their escape or the news of what was happening across the galaxy. Right now though, everything felt so normal, sure the lines were longer than usual but nobody was scared or crying and services of all kinds were in full swing. 

Jill almost didn’t notice the shuttle flying in, slowly drifting towards the crowded district on the Presidium. A second shuttle moved in from behind the first, blocked from view. The pair of craft drew no attention until they each floated to a hover above the crowds of people. The gush of hot air from the thruster underneath forced a wide circle to form around the two shuttles. Something wasn’t right, the shuttles were white, not the solid blue of C-Sec shuttles, nor did C-Sec park them above crowds of civilians. 

Jill had ducked down in her seat without realising, only noticing when her injured leg began to cramp up. The shuttles opened their side doors and all together two dozen heavily armed and armoured white clad soldiers leapt out, breaking their falls with small thrusters attached to their gear. Each brandished either a small submachine gun or semi automatic rifle. The last two out of the shuttle wore almost no armour at all, instead a skin tight enclosed suit with a sword sheathed on their backs. Wasting no time the two heaviest armoured troopers began ordering their fellows in certain directions and as they followed their orders, the troops began firing their weapons, gunning down people at random.

A few months ago this would have frozen Jill on the spot, instead, Jill fired off a call to C-Sec and began edging her way under the table. Troopers entered the cafe and started dragging occupants outside. Jill could hear the voice of the responder at C-Sec on her omni tool and, as a trooper began to approach her table, muted her call, without hanging up.

“You! Stand up! Now!” Shouted the trooper as he threw aside Jill’s table, bashing it against her injured leg in the process, his voice horribly distorted. The burst of pain caused her to reach down for her leg but the trooper grabbed her arm and began unceremoniously sliding her out the entrance, forcing her onto her knees alongside twenty or so other people that couldn’t get away fast enough. The soldier who dragged her out moved away as she righted herself, his commander giving him instructions whilst pointing at his own omni tool. Jill’s omni tool had switched off at some point, clearly early enough not to have caused one of the troopers to see it.

The people Jill was lined up with were looking around franticly, one man was sobbing and a young child at the end of the line was with her mother. At the other end of the line the White Soldiers were interrogating the first man in the line. Perhaps satisfied with his answers they merely moved on to the next person in line, constantly referring to a datapad held by what appeared to be a leader of the White Soldiers. His gear was bulkier than the rest and had what seemed like an Aerial sticking up out of his gear.

The third person they confronted seemed particularly edgy. As the White Soldiers stepped up to him they began pointing at him and pointing at their datapad. Convinced of some connection, the nearest Soldier pulled out his sidearm and attempted to aim at the head of their suspect. However gunfire diverted their attention. From further up the street three C-Sec officers had arrived. The White Soldiers immediately grabbed hostages, however from the opposite side of the street two more C-Sec officers crept closer. Both Asari, they placed the two sword wielders in Stasis and gunned down the Soldiers that weren’t currently holding civilians. The ones who were threatening hostages were surrounded and knew it. Each killed their hostage then attempted to fire on the C-Sec officers to no avail. 

Before the sword wielders could break free from their Stasis they were disarmed and forced down onto the ground. Small flashes detonated within their helmets.   
“Shit, they love their ocular flashbangs. Idiots” Said one Turian officer. He then approached Jill and the remaining civilians.   
“Everyone please, those who can return home do so, otherwise get off the streets until told otherwise by Citadel Security.” He approached Jill straight away. “Miss are you injured?” Jill took his offered hand and rose from her failing kneeling position.   
“I’m ok, I didn’t get this injury here. I need to find my friend he’d be at work. Rihlus, his name is Rihlus.” The officer shook his head firmly.   
“No, Miss you need to leave, contact your friend if you can but get home as soon as possible.” With that he left and attended to others who looked shaken or injured.

Slowly limping home, Jill opened up her Omni Tool’s inbox. Only one message from Rihlus just fifteen minutes ago.   
“Jill? Where are you? Are you safe?” Was all it said. Across the Presidium lake glass exploded outwards, showering down on the fleeing citizens below as fighting broke out above between C-Sec and an oversized mech.  
Quickly ducking into a store entryway, Jill held up her Omni Tool, tapping away her own response for Rihlus.

“I’m ok. Stuck on Presidium, heading to Wards elevators.” She wrote, firing away her message and ducking down as gunfire spattered across her side of the lake. Above her, C-Sec was engaging several clusters of the white soldiers now all along the higher levels of the Presidium. Back towards the cafe C-Sec began firing on another shuttle as it flew in low over them, attempting to burn them with its thrusters. Before the fighting caught up, Jill hobbled out of her doorway, following the sporadic crowds of people towards the Wards Access elevators.


	13. Human Shield

Gradually the herd thinned, leaving Jill alone as most chose their own paths to safety. Rounding a final corner into the main lobby of Wards Access, Jill found a middle aged man cradling a young boy who groaned in his arms. Upon seeing Jill the man aimed a pistol at her, dropping it when he saw no evidence of the white soldiers. Jill rushed towards the pair on the ground, already seeing a pool of blood snaking down the boys arm and leg.  
 “What happened? Was he shot?” Jill asked quickly, kneeling down as best she could manage.  
“We both were. I can’t move my legs.” The man breathed, his trauma already taking a heavy toll on him. Jill took the pistol from the mans grip, tossing it to the side.  
“Please, place him down flat. I’m a nurse, I need to see where he’s hurt.” Jill said. The man had no energy to fight her, releasing what grip he had of the boy. Gently he was lowered down, whimpering as he was placed on the cold floor.

Jill tore open the boys shirt and found her first bullet hole in his shoulder. Ripping the boys shirt into a tourniquet Jill wrapped it around his shoulder. Before Jill could start work on the next wound gunfire erupted again nearby. Backing up into the Wards Access one of the white clad soldiers fired back the way they had come. Once able to seek cover the soldier darted to the side behind the wall protecting Jill and her charges. Seeing the civilians the soldier raised his rifle, pointing it towards Jill.

“Up!” the soldier shouted, pressing the rifle barrel into Jill’s temple. Carefully she rose but her leg caused her to stumble, falling into the soldier. Grabbing her by her hair the soldier lifted her up and wrapped an arm around he chest, rifle now pointed towards whomever was chasing him. Jill struggled until two C-Sec officers approached, pistols lowered as the Soldier slowly dragged Jill back with him towards the elevators.  
“Call it!” The soldier demanded as the pair reached the elevators. Jill reached across and tapped the glowing green button. Within seconds the doors opened and the Soldier began firing wildly at his foes.

As the C-Sec officers ducked, their light shielding sparing them the first shots, white smoke erupted from the soldier’s armour, surrounding the small room. The soldier yanked Jill backwards with him into the elevator, closing the doors before anyone could follow. Despite the momentary safety Jill was held tight, her back pressed against the cold, rigid armour. Jill watched on as the elevator progress display showed them land at the bottom of the shaft. As the doors opened however, a C-Sec team had already assembled, waiting for their target. Not bothering to continue with his hostage the Soldier abandoned his rifle and withdrew a pistol, attempting to aim it at Jill’s head. Before he could fire, a single invisible shot echoed out from somewhere in the distance. The soldier collapsed, dragging Jill down with him into a heap in the elevator. Swiftly C-Sec rushed forward to drag Jill out of the dead soldier’s grasp.

“Ma’am, are you ok?” One officer asked, guiding her to the safety of a waiting medic, her obvious limp drawing their attention.  
“I’m ok…i’m ok. There’s two people upstairs, they’ve been shot. We left them behind.” Jill explained, fending off probing aids.  
“We know, we have people going up now. Are you injured ma’am?” The medic repeated, urging Jill to take a seat at the edge of one of the shuttles parked nearby.  
“I’m fine, that’s from something else.” Jill tried to stand, pushing away the medic but immediately hunching forward, vomiting on the floor in front of her. The medic came to her side, wrapping her in a light blanket as Jill collapsed on the floor, shaking, her face beading with sweat. Around her others began rushing to help, pulling Jill off the ground and laying her inside the shuttle.

*

“I don’t understand, what happened?” Rihlus repeated, eyes fixed on Jill’s resting form yet again in hospital. “As you know, there was an attack on the Citadel, your friend was taken hostage briefly but she’s fine now. She’s simply suffering from a state of shock.” The Human nurse described for the second time.  
“So she’ll be ok? It’s temporary?” Rihlus pressed, bringing up a brief description on shock in human’s on his Omni Tool.

“She’ll be ok in time but she needs rest, time away from any stress.” The nurse said.  
“I can’t exactly stop a terrorist can I?” Rihlus bit back, gesturing to a nearby vid screen as it replayed footage from the attack. The nurse sighed, rubbing his neck wearily.  
“I’m sorry, it’s…she’s been through a lot. We were on Earth.” Rihlus lowered his Omni Tool, raising his arm to the glass and resting his forehead against it.  
“I understand sir, but rest assured, she’ll be fine in time. Her previous leg injury has been aggravated but other than that she’ll just need time. Now, I’m afraid I have other patients to see, you’re welcome to go in if you’d like.” The nurse began to move away, datapad in hand beeping incessantly.

Waiting a few moments before entering, Rihlus decided not to wake Jill. A small monitor tracked her status nearby, beeping along with her heart rate. Satisfied she was stable Rihlus took a seat across the room. By the time he looked up again Jill’s eyes were open, watching as Rihlus got comfortable.  
“Hey” Jill mumbled, wagging her finger in a hello.  
“Hey yourself. Doc says you’re doing alright. What do you say?” Rihlus leant forward, reaching over to Jill’s bed and collecting her hand, holding it tight.  
“I wanna sleep.” Jill smiled, sliding her hand free and rolling over.  
“Fair enough. I’ll be here if you need me.” Rihlus agreed, slinking down into his chair and stretching out as best he could. Instead of sleeping, Jill stared through her portal to the presidium, watching on as smoke billowed out from a cafe along the financial district.


	14. Time Crawls On

Each day the station grew busier and busier. Refugees poured in from across the Galaxy, nothing to their name but some money and fear. Regular broadcasts across the station now asked for anyone who could spare the room to consider taking in an extra person or two. After the attack on the Citadel by Cerberus, resources were beginning to become scarce and food was regularly missing from stores. Some restaurants had closed and many Hotels and high end establishments were now filled to the brim with the homeless.

From Rihlus’s apartment window things were still normal. People moved around as if nothing had changed, but from time to time a personal transport would land and a group would file out. Asari, Turians, Salarians. Batarians were the most common. Word had started reaching the public just how badly the Batarian home world Kar’Sharn had been ravaged and every night on the news, leaked footage would show their enemy swarming through what were vast cities, Batarian families running for their lives as indiscriminate red beams snuffed them from existence.

Jill had spoken with Rihlus a few nights earlier about taking in some refugees, as there was plenty of room for at least one more, maybe two. They’d agreed and arranged for a Turian mother and child to stay with them the next morning. Jill’s mood had sunk incredibly far from their days before Earth, barely speaking and hardly eating. Most days Rihlus would come home from work exhausted and clearly not faring much better. His theatre having closed and become a shelter, housing all manner of refuge seeker from Asari to Volus.

“Hey, you’re up earlier than usual” Whispered Rihlus, barely awake himself. Jill gave a weak smile before looking back out the window. Rihlus leant in over her, placing a Talon on the wall to lean on, joining her gaze. “You do this a lot?” He asked.   
“Sometimes. I can’t take it for long though.” She replied softly. Rihlus nodded and turned towards the kitchen, knowing not to expect much more.

Before he could get there, Rihlus Omni Tool began whirring and beeping.   
“Yep” Was all he said, not even bothering to hide his exhaustion.   
“Hello Rihlus? It’s James from Citadel Security, I’m calling in regards to the family you organised to take on.” Jill turned away from the window at the mention of their soon to be guests.   
“Oh, right, is everything ok?” Rihlus asked, concern evident but again, no effort to hide it. “Yes, nothing is wrong, in fact I’m happy to say the Mother and Child found their Father, he was in a later shuttle and only came in last night.” Jill smiled, and gave a nod to Rihlus as a tear tried to escape down her cheeks. “So they’ve decided to stay together down in the Docks for now.”   
“Sure, no problem, we’re just glad something worked out for them.” A small, light hearted laugh came through the speaker.  
“I know, it’s pretty rare now, but that’s why i’m wondering, if you’re still interested we’d like to arrange for a Batarian couple to take their place, would that be ok?” Rihlus looked up to Jill who immediately nodded excitedly.   
“Absolutely, we’d be happy to help, just give us a call when we can come and pick them up.”


	15. Proposition

“….details of the Quarians actions during the Reaper Invasion have been unclear, however, latest reports suggest they have brokered a….”

“What do Batarians eat?” Asked Jill, mouthful of cereal. Rihlus stopped eating, eyes still on the Vid screen.   
“Uh… I… Don’t know actually. Slaves tears?” Jill sprayed milk as she tried to stifle a laugh. “Sorry, that wasn’t a good joke.” Rihlus said, eyes lighting up a bit at the sight of Jill laughing.   
“No, and I wouldn’t say that in front of them.” replied Jill, using her sleeve to clear up the milk spray.

Seeing the lift in mood, Rihlus decided to take a chance at something.   
“I’ve been meaning to ask, and I know i’m not very good at reading humans but, how are you coping with all this?” Jill didn’t look up, continuing eating for a few moments before softly replying.   
“Not great, why?” Rihlus pushed his meal away and leant forward a bit   
“Well, I was wondering. We’ll have guests soon and, well, we won’t have the freedom we’ve had for a long time…” Jill’s eyebrow rose at what Rihlus was saying. “…so how would you like to go out to dinner?” 

Jill squinted her eyes slightly, not sure what to think.   
“Like…a date?” Said Jill slowly, confused. Rihlus laughed, and shook his head   
“No, not a date, just for fun, something to get our minds off things for a few hours.” Jill went back to her cereal, not replying again until she had finished and dropped the bowl onto the table.   
“What did you have in mind? You know I don’t have much to wear, even around the house.” Rihlus nodded, well I didn’t mean going dancing or to some upper class Casino, just dinner.” Jill turned to watched the Vid screen.

Rihlus was truthfully very nervous, that she would say no. He’d seen her glued to the Vids more and more lately, always desperate for any news about Earth.  
“So?” He urged, not letting her escape too deeply into the grim news reels.   
“Ok, but… just don’t surprise me with anything ridiculous yeah?” Jill narrowed her eyes, aiming her spoon at Rihlus.  
“Agreed.” Rihlus said, shaking the spoon in place of Jill’s hand.


	16. The Final Day

As usual, Rihlus headed out after breakfast to help at the Theatre. The wave of depression Rihlus felt as he walked in the doors wasn’t as brutal as usual. Past the big entrance were only about half as many refugees than just the day prior. Rihlus looked around and saw Perret, the Elcor that organised the living quarters for everyone inside the Theatre. “Perret!” Rihlus called as he closed in. “Did something happen?” The Elcor slowly turned himself towards Rihlus before speaking.   
“Subtle joy, Hello Rihlus… Explanatory… A closing Hotel nearby has opened its doors to all who were staying here.” He said. Rihlus nodded as he scanned the makeshift living quarters.   
“Oh, so are we getting more people today?”   
“Desolate… no.. they aren’t able to come here until tomorrow morning. Processing is quite strict lately.”

The two stood watch for a few minutes, observing the remaining families left inside the theatre. Some Asari children were chasing each other through the different groups, clearly annoying those around them.   
“Hey, i’m gonna go and see if anyone needs anything, then I’m gonna make some calls. Do you know of anywhere that’s open for dinner?” Perret hung his head lower at the question.   
“Sadness… All restaurants in my area have closed. My favourite Sushi Kiosk closed just this morning.”

“What!? All of them?” Rihlus burst out. Perret nodded glumly, as best an Elcor could. “Regret… I didn’t go last night as I was too tired.” Rihlus shook his head and scratched his neck.   
“I asked Jill to go out to dinner tonight, she needed the break from this shit.” Perret thought for a moment before turning his body towards the Kitchens. He raised one giant arm “Helpful… There are bottles of Alcohol and some ingredients inside that refrigerator. Enthusiastically… I will tell the owners I used them for the refugees.” Rihlus pondered the offer briefly, but he really wanted to make good on his offer to Jill.   
“Ok, thanks, i’ll look up some recipes. I’ll grab the food later on.” Before Perret could speak the children ran up and began running in between his giants legs. Rihlus gave a wave to Perret before heading off to one of the families arguing amongst themselves.

After Rihlus left for work, Jill decided to go for another walk. She helped Rihlus when she could at the Theatre but her leg was still sore and the lifting and carrying and standing around took its toll. Every day was busier and busier, people bustling around, bumping into each other, lines for stores extending out into the streets. Despite it all, the sight of all this life helped ease Jill’s fears. Seeing the groups of people talking and laughing with each other, even in times like these was comforting.

Jumping into the elevator Jill took the long, long….long journey up to the Presidium. Her time spent at Physio brought a love for the Presidium. The pass for her Physio appointments still got her up there, even if it had expired. Finding a nice bench near the Krogan Monument, Jill sat down and committed to staying as long as she could before heading home.

Rihlus grabbed the goods from the fridge and, with a wave to Perret who was holding about six children on his back, Rihlus headed home to cook. Hoping to surprise Jill he gave her a call.   
“Hey” Jill answered, her typical cheer mostly gone, but a smile on her face regardless.   
“Ah, hey, you on the Presidium again?” Rihlus asked, peering closer at his screen.  
“Yeah, it’s pretty busy today. What’s up?”  
“I’m heading home now, not much to do today at the Theatre. But I did organise somewhere for dinner.” He stated proudly.  
“Where at?”  
“Nope, not telling, just make sure you’re back here in an hour.”  
“If it’s some place fancy i’m still wearing Jeans.”  
“No no, nothing fancy. Promise. Enjoy the Presidium.”   
With a wave Jill disconnected the call. Walking through his home’s door, Rihlus opened up his Omni Tool and began searching for “How to cook Pasta”.


	17. Dinner

Rihlus placed the meal on the table and brought out one of the bottles of wine he found. Not having met a cork before he wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with it. First he tried gripping it, but his Talons didn’t allow for that. He tried to bite it and tear it out that way but it didn’t budge. For the next five minutes he scraped and poked and chewed on the cork to remove it.

Just as the door to the home opened, Rihlus gave one last twist with the tips of his talons before “Bang!” the cork pinged off and smashed into a glass window, leaving a webbing from the impact.   
“What the fuck was that?!” Jill started, ducking from the flying object.   
“Shit, sorry, it’s this damn bottle, I couldn’t get the thing out of the top.”  
Jill looked over at the table and bottle of wine in his grip.   
“Did you plan this or were there no places available.” She said, grinning as she stepped up to smell the meal.   
“All restaurants were closed and I couldn’t afford somewhere on the Presidium, so, I thought i’d make us dinner.” Rihlus sighed.

Jill laughed, a rare sound nowadays.   
“So? How’d I do? I got this thing off the Extranet, Pasta Bake i think.” Jill looked at the monstrosity and her heart sank a bit.   
“Honestly?” She said, looking directly at Rihlus. “I’m scared to eat it, but i’ve seen worse that tasted amazing.” Rihlus tilted his head slightly   
“Well, i guess that’ll do as a compliment. Ready to eat?” Jill nodded and sat down, smelling the bottle of wine.   
“Hmm, are there other bottles around?” She asked, Rihlus was busy grabbing his own meal from the kitchen bench.   
“Uh, yeah, why?” Jill waggled the bottle in front of her as she walked towards the refrigerator. “This one’s corked, the small thing you were struggling against in the lid effected the taste of the wine. Not your fault.” She said as she picked up another bottle. Jill grabbed a small cloth, grabbed the cork and twisted it off in one quick motion. Rihlus just stared, unamused.   
“Seriously?” He muttered, to which Jill just grinned and grabbed a glass.   
“Oh, don’t worry about a glass, it’s all yours” Rihlus said. Jill let out a loud “HA” before taking a big swig from the bottle.   
“Ooooh, that’s awful.” She said laughing and cringing from the taste, but taking another lengthy guzzle anyway.

Both sat down at the table and began eating. Rihlus eating a Turian dish that Jill could have sworn was a type of soft Fish. Despite its appearance, the Pasta Bake was amazing and Jill finished the entire thing herself. The wine was terrible but it was still alcohol.   
“So, that Batarian couple, they’ll be through processing tomorrow, we can head down early in the morning and pick them up.” Jill made an “Mhm” noise as she scoffed down her meal. Rihlus shuddered at the sight.   
“How was the Presidium?” He continued, hoping Jill might open up a bit more. When she finished her mouthful she shrugged her shoulders   
“Was alright, just needed to get out for a bit.” She looked up at Rihlus briefly before saying any more “Rihlus, we’ve had to experience a lot of bad in one year. I don’t talk about it because I don’t want to, that’s it.” Jill explained, no malice in her voice. “I’ll be ok, if I need to i’ll talk but I just don’t really work that way.” Rihlus sat silently, just listening. This is what he was hoping to hear, that it wasn’t worse than she was letting on.

“Anyway, you’ve been through it too, why don’t you talk about it?” Jill continued, leaning forward in her chair. Rihlus was surprised, he never really considered that.   
“Well… I guess I was too busy to worry about it.” He said, staring off to the side, trying to figure out an answer.   
“I served my compulsory time anyway so i’ve seen that stuff before. Just not on that scale.” He pondered. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, I just wanted to know how you were coping, and you told me. Leave it at that?” Rihlus asked, rising up in his seat and extending a Talon to shake. Jill chuckled before grabbing her chair and waddling over to Rihlus side of the table. Leaning in she gave him a hug. “Deal, and thanks for asking.”

Rihlus didn’t reply. He sat staring straight ahead out their window. Jill didn’t notice it straight away, but just above the building across from theirs was the tips of the Citadel Arms. Floating in silently was the black silhouette of a very large, multi limbed Reaper.


	18. All Over Again

Jill and Rihlus jumped up and ran to the bedroom as it had a better view out towards the Citadel Arms. Sure enough, a Reaper was hovering just at the tip of the Arms. Streaks of colour could be seen whizzing past it and colliding into its side as combat took place just into the Nebula. From the pink fog another Reaper materialised and flew straight into the Citadel, aimed directly for its centre.

“Grab one bag and fill it with whatever food you can find. We need to leave.” Rihlus ordered. Jill leapt across the room towards her large travel bag before racing into the kitchen. Rihlus quickly opened a map of the local area on his Omni Tool, looking for C-Sec or anything that could provide transport. A Kilometre away was a large C-Sec station. He’d seen it before but didn’t know if it had a vehicle of any worth, but he didn’t have much choice. Plopping down a small destination marker he followed Jill into the kitchen. 

“Where’re we going?” Jill said, no fear, just determination.   
“C-Sec, they have a place nearby that’s big enough for Skycars or even a shuttle.” Rihlus held up his small map and Jill analysed it.   
“No, that’s not going to work, there are hundreds of people living in this building alone, they’ll all go straight there, head for the next one. It’s in between two districts.” Rihlus didn’t argue, changed his marker, then opened the door for them to leave.

Outside people were already starting to panic, on edge after everything that had happened people were running in the streets, shouting and crying. Above them the massive black form of the Reaper flew over them, closing in on the Presidium Ring and Citadel Tower.   
“What’s it trying to do?” asked Jill as the two stared upwards.   
“I don’t know but when that Geth Ship attacked, it did the same thing.” Jill dragged her attention back down and gripped Rihlus, tugging him out of his stupor. His attention was quickly switched to their opposite side as large explosions and gunfire began to erupt a few kilometres away. From behind the building a smaller Reaper strode into view, firing down into the station as it carved a path towards the centre.

“This way!” Rihlus yelled, dragging Jill with him towards their target. With a loud, metallic “GONG” the lead Reaper connected with the Citadel Tower, enveloping it with its excessive limbs. Unlike their experience on Earth, Jill and Rihlus were swarmed by others, fleeing into a station without much chance for escape. Asari and Humans, Turians and Salarians, all moving different directions. Around them, bullets were beginning to hit windows and walls, shattering glass over large groups of people.

At the end of the street, nearly halfway to their destination the crowd thinned somewhat with the same fiery balls beginning to land all across the station. Some slamming hopelessly into solid walls killing the occupants, others skidding across the ground with the same Bulbous creatures clambering out, firing wildly into anyone nearby. At one intersection, a group of Turian and Human soldiers were supporting an Elcor combatant, armed to the teeth with massive weaponry strapped to its back. The weapon obliterated anything it fired at, and was the only cover people had to escape. Using this opportunity, Rihlus and Jill raced past them into the street beyond, closing in on the C-Sec station.


	19. Return

The blare of the Reapers horn was becoming louder as it moved quickly up the Ward arm. A quick glance up and Jill could see several other Reapers conducting the same attacks on the other Wards. Two or three to an arm, separated, but moving in time towards the centre of the station. Ahead of them, as less buildings blocked their view, Rihlus and Jill could see another Reaper sweeping its beam across their Ward. Trapped between two machines, Jill stopped and yanked Rihlus back with her.  “We won’t make it to C-Sec, here!” She shouted, pulling Rihlus across the street to a small store. 

Bursting through the door Rihlus and Jill were met with two Asari, hiding behind the counter.   
“Quick, up!” Rihlus demanded “Shut the doors, lock them, do it now!”. The Asari didn’t bother questioning and leapt to action, shutting the shops heavy doors and shutters, locking them. Rihlus left Jill to look in the back.

As Jill helped seal the shop, she saw blood smeared across the head of one of the Asari. She was just about to grab her attention, to ask if she was injured before all three collapsed to the ground. Jill grabbed her head closing her eyes as the wave of vertigo washed over her.   
“Jill!?” Rihlus yelled from the back.   
“Yeah, i’m… ok.” Jill stood up, helping the Asari to do the same. Rihlus stumbled into the room.   
“What was that?” Jill asked. Rihlus gestured to them all to come and look.

At the back of the store was a window into a small loading area. Another window further in was lit and flashing like the effect of water on a ceiling.   
“Is the dock sealed?” Rihlus asked the Asari. They both nodded slowly, unsure of what the Turian was getting at. Rihlus moved to the door leading to the small dock, took a deep breath and yanked it open. A rush of cool air flooded in but nothing else happened. Rihlus ran forward towards the window, ducking down to avoid being seen.

As Rihlus reached the window, he couldn’t see anything but the flickering of light that accompanied Faster than Light travel through a Mass Relay. Rihlus stood up   
“Quick, come look.” He yelled back to the others. They jogged into the room, joining him at the window.   
“Please tell me we aren’t jumping.” Sighed Jill, running her hands through her hair. Rihlus shook his head in frustration.   
“Not just that, it means the station at the moment is exposed.” He guided the others to the windows at the front of the store.

As they reached the front, the view of the streets outside showed emptiness.   
“I don’t know science Rihlus, what happened?” Jill demanded.   
“The station is protected but not from FTL” Rihlus sat down on a small table as he spoke. “And even then, the Reapers would have used the jump to kill resistance in the streets.” The room stayed silent while everything sunk in.   
“We can leave when we arrive though?” Jill pressed, not interested in stopping.   
“Yeah, once we arrive wherever we’re going, the station will begin rotating again and the guards against Space will kick back in.” Jill ducked down to try and get a better view of outside.   
“How long?” she asked. “Depends on where we’re going” Rihlus asked.


	20. Home

“Do you know how to fly one though?” Rihlus asked, not entirely convinced of their plan. “Look, I play a lot of games, I don’t actually know but between those and my old work car i’m a pretty good pilot.…probably” No one seemed convinced.   
“Ok, well here’s our other plan, we wait here and then ask around for a pilot.” Jill threw her arms up but smacked them into a low shelf.   
“No, it’s ok, we should be good. We’ll have plenty of time to mess with the controls when we get out.” said Rihlus, holding back a small chuckle at Jill’s clumsiness.   
“Excuse me but, where do we need to go to find the shuttle?” Asked one Asari, the distress in her voice causing it to tremble.   
“Oh, here, I still have it marked.” Rihlus replied, standing up and walking over to show his Omni Tool.

As he reached halfway across the room, another wave of vertigo surged through each of the four. Rihlus fell forwards but managed to grab hold of the the wall to steady himself. “That’s it” Rihlus said woozily, trying to steady himself. Jill and the Asari both gathered themselves and rushed towards the entrance, raising the shutters and crowding around Rihlus. Rihlus gestured for one of the Asari to unlocked the door.

“We need to wait for a minute before the Station starts turning again.” Rihlus stated. The others nodded in agreement. The foursome stood at the door silently.   
“Just follow me when we leave, but run as fast as you can.” Three nods and the plan was set. Hovering his hand near the doors lock, Rihlus looked towards the others as each felt a slight weightlessness take them before leaving again. Barely noticable but with all three so tense, the look all four shared confirmed what they needed to know.   
“Ok, now!” Rihlus shouted, opening the door to the empty streets.

Anything that had been outside when the Citadel departed through the Relay had died. Reaper troops, Humans, Salarians, all strewn across what was a bustling metropolis. Rihlus was the first and fastest but stopped for the others to catch up. He saw Jill’s hobble coming back, her leg still not ideal at quick movement. He stopped about 20 metres ahead of the others and looked up. The planet they were orbiting was slowly coming into view.

As Jill pushed herself as hard as she could to keep up, she saw Rihlus stop ahead and look into the skies.   
“Jill! Look!” He shouted back. Whipping her head around, Jill saw the beautiful, blue shape of her own home world. Earth.


	21. Dead Citadel

Jill almost fell over as she saw where they had been taken. Rihlus made to keep going but saw Jill slow down, gaze fixed into the sky. Rihlus ran back and, reaching Jill, placed himself in between her view, grabbed her shoulder and began slowly pushing her to keep going.   
“Jill, we need to move!” He ordered. Jill tore her eyes away   
“I know.. I know.” She said, limping her way onwards. The two Asari had stopped and waited for the other two to catch up. 

“There, see that C-Sec building? In there!” Rihlus pointed his Talon and the Asari ran ahead to open the doors. Jill was slowing down to the point she was almost at a fast walk. Rihlus tried to support her but she would just shrug him off.   
“Just get in there and find a shuttle!” Jill snapped as the Asari ran into the C-Sec station.

Rihlus left Jill’s side and ran in after the Asari. Just inside the doors were remnants of a firefight before the Citadel jump. The faces of the humans were blue from asphyxiation, most riddled with wounds from gunfire. Sprinting through the offline detectors Rihlus entered a shuttle bay.

Several shuttles remained, never having any chance to even leave their pads. The Asari waved Rihlus over to one that’s hatch was open, gear and weapons spilling out onto the floor outside. As Rihlus reached the shuttle he turned to see Jill stumble into the Bay, gripping the walls to hold herself upright.   
“Help her over!” He shouted to one of the Asari who immediately sprinted over to Jill and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, hoisting her up.

The Asari guided Jill inside the shuttle and into the cockpit.   
“Ok, i’m good, thanks” Jill said, exasperated from her ordeal. “Ok.. ok, on button, on button” she muttered to herself as the others took seats in the rear. Rihlus moved into the small doorway separating the cockpit. With an “ah ha!” Jill brought the touch panel to life. A few more button presses and the door sealed shut.   
“Rihlus, i’ll need you to sit over there” Jill stated, not looking away from the mess of buttons in front of her. Rihlus took a seat as Jill brought the engines to life.   
“How do we move this thing?” Rihlus said.   
“I think here, it controls the thrusters individually, and I think this changes their angle.” Jill said quickly, almost excited at her quick understanding of the controls. 

The shuttle rumbled and Jill poked at a small square button. A view screen appeared in front of Rihlus showing the shuttle bay outside.   
“That should help. If i’m reading this display wrong, let me know, i don’t want to hit anything.” said Jill, fingers dancing around before landing on the thrusters.   
“Ok, here we go, we need to go up and then out through the roof.” Jill said, glancing between her small readouts and the display. The shuttle rose higher, swaying slightly as Jill got used to the shuttle.

Slowly but surely, Jill guided the shuttle higher until the exit materialised directly in front. With a sever shake and metallic “crash!” Jill smashed the roof of the shuttle into the top of the Bay.   
“Shit! Sorry! Forward this time” laughed Jill. Rihlus closed his eyes and gripped his chair as the shuttle crept forward into the exit chute, scraping against the walls and jostling around in the small space. With an unpleasant surge the shuttle evacuated into the Citadel skies before coming to a floating stop.   
“Ok, are we really heading down to Earth again?” Sighed Jill, her enjoyment from the controls gone.   
“I don’t think we’d make it to the Relay” Said Rihlus “Even if we did we have no supplies so, we have to get down there. At least we can find people to help us.”

Jill ran her hands through her hair as she sighed in agreement.   
“Right… wait… are the Wards moving?” Jill said, staring into the view screen.   
“They’re closing the Citadel!” Rihlus shouted. Jill jumped right back to work and flung the shuttle around, aiming for the nearest open space to leave the Citadel.

Across the arms Reapers were still standing, walking to and fro, but not firing at anything. No Reapers were in their way however and gradually the shuttle flew closer to the edge of the station.   
“I’m sorry i can’t get us moving faster, I don’t know how to handle this thing very well” Said Jill apologetically.   
“It’s fine, just get us through safely” Rihlus replied tersely, talon’s digging into his chair.


	22. Descent

The Citadel arms were closing quickly but by the time the small shuttle zipped through the edge of the station, they were only half closed.   
“Good job, you did great” Rihlus said, leaning over and resting his Talon on Jill’s shoulder. “Yeah well now I need to figure out how to re enter an atmosphere and land, easy” Jill retorted, clearly not as convinced of her achievement as her Turian friend.

“You two ok?” Jill yelled into the back. A weak voice floated back in reply   
“Yes, thank you, where are we going?”. Jill was about to reply, but realised she hadn’t considered where was safe yet.   
“Uh… i’ll uh.. let you know in a sec.” She replied. Rihlus raised a Talon and pointed to the screen   
“There, Reapers, are they showing up on your screen?” Rihlus asked, leaning forward to get a better look.   
“Of course, there’s probably thousands of them, look” Jill motioned for him to come closer. “Look, here, I think this is picking up heat signatures, but it can’t focus cause there’s so many of them moving around.” The small indicator pinged in different directions every second.

“We need to head straight down, do you know where we can go?” Asked Rihlus, leaning in closer so only Jill could hear.   
“Well, I used to work out of France, but I thought I heard on the news that it was in bad shape, but that might have been London I can’t remember.” Jill stated frustratedly, running her hands through her hair constantly, trying to figure out what to do.   
“Look, lets head down over the ocean and check this London place first ok?” Said Rihlus, crouching down next to Jill.

Jill smiled weakly, but lost it quickly. She leaned in to Rihlus, attempting to say something. “We… we aren’t somewhere safe Rihlus, it doesn’t matter what part of the planet we land on, I don’t even think I can get us down there, let alone land.” Rihlus tried to interject but Jill kept on “If we do land, there’s no way we can leave again, not now, there’s an entire fleet up here around us. They might even know we’re floating here.” Rihlus just let her go, this is, after all, what he was hoping she would do at dinner. “I’m really fucking scared Rihlus, I don’t wanna die and I don’t …wanna lose my friend.” 

Rihlus hung his head, reached behind him and shut the doors to the cabin.   
“I’m gonna be honest with you, I don’t know that we’ll make it either. I’m just going on instinct at the moment and when we get down there, those two out there will probably die, or will be separated from us.” Jill leant back in her chair and closed her eyes as Rihlus spoke.   
“We might die too, maybe just me, maybe both of us, but you know i’m not going to leave you. We’ve been through this once before, we can do it again.” Jill titled her head, staring right at Rihlus. “And since we’re on the subject, I don’t want to lose you either, but if we keep thinking about that and talking about that, we won’t get anywhere, ok?” Jill closed her eyes, and nodded. Rihlus leant in and hugged Jill who sat up and hugged him back.   
“It’ll be ok, one way or another. Just focus on figuring out the shuttle at the moment.” Jill let go and adjusted herself in the chair “Yep, ok, um, could you go tell the others what’s going on?” Rihlus stood up and walked out to the Asari, clearly concerned about being left out of something important.

As Rihlus left, Jill began aiming the shuttle towards Earth. The glow across Europe was spreading across as the light of the sun moved across the planet. Instead of land, Jill drifted towards the North Atlantic. It was still in Daylight which wasn’t great, but the idea of open sea seemed safer than land. Rihlus stooped back into the cockpit.   
“They’re fine, but they want to find their own way when we land.” Said Rihlus.   
“They say they’ve been here before and want to head to some place called Australia.” Jill laughed.   
“I wouldn’t call that safer but ok. We can drop them off I guess.” Rihlus looked over to Jill, not understanding the joke. Shrugging to himself he continued.   
“I also checked if there’s anything on the shuttle, we have a few pistols but that’s it. Not even spare Thermal Clips.”

Rihlus leant back in his chair, but as he did, a bright red light shot past the shuttles viewing screen. If not for the black of space, they would have missed it.   
“What was that?” Jill asked, pointing to the screen.   
“Yeah I know I saw it too, I saw one of those on Earth, flying around the skies. It’s a Reaper ship or something.” Rihlus explained, standing up and peering into the screen. Jill sat up and began poking at the controls.   
“I need a rear view screen, I think.. yeah here we go.” The screen switched backwards, facing the Citadel which had now completely closed. 

Barely visible now was the red light gradually approaching the Citadel.   
“If it turns around?” Jill asked, not taking her eyes from the screen.   
“Then we need to move really fast cause those things move like fighters.” Replied Rihlus, finally sounding nervous. Sure enough, the red light cut across the view of the Citadel and headed back towards the shuttle.   
“Rihlus, I can make us go but I can’t control it. Understand?” Rihlus leapt out of his chair and darted into the cabin. “Ok, strap into the chairs, we’re going to be in a bit of trouble soon.” Rihlus said to the two Asari, as he rushed to check their harnesses.

Whatever the small red lights plans were, it hadn’t drawn the attention of anything bigger. Jill started to push the shuttle faster and faster. careful not to flare up too soon. Rihlus leapt back into his chair and strapped himself down as best he could.   
“Rihlus what do I do?” Jill asked, looking across to the Turian.   
“Can you get us fast enough to outrun it?” Rihlus replied quickly. “Yeah, well, I think, it’s a shuttle, it isn’t meant for this.” Jill replied, fiddling with the controls, splitting her attention between them and Rihlus.   
“Just go, quick, we’ll plan as we fly.” Rihlus answered, gripping his harness.

The shuttle rumbled violently as Jill increased their speed.   
“Sorry, I don’t know how to turn on motion dampeners!” Jill yelled as they careened forward, quadrupling their speed. The small red light caught on quickly and began closing in on their rear.   
“I think it knows! How far are we?!” Rihlus shouted back, craning his neck to see what Jill was doing.   
“We’re… five minutes from land!” Jill strained, her hands playing catch up with all the unique warnings the shuttle was eliciting. All Rihlus could see was red lights, flashing across the console, for each one Jill attended to, another two would pop up. The ship shuddered and the lighting flickered.   
“It shot at us!”Jill yelled, “I don’t know how to evade it Rihlus!” she added, sweat starting to bead on her forehead.   
“No, it hasn’t reached us yet, that was the planet, look!” The view screen was a bright, white hot as the shuttle unceremoniously tore through the highest levels of the planets atmospheres.

The shuttle was beginning to shake as if giants were trying to break it open.   
“Jill! It’s stopped!” Rihlus urged, leaning over and grabbing her attention. Jill looked up and saw nothing on the view screen. Jill slowed the shuttle down as they broke into the planets skies.   
“Jill, no, keep going, don’t stop, go straight down!” yelled Rihlus as Jill switched the camera back to the front. Rising up from below a full sized Reaper ship was entering their view. The last of the daylight gave it a demonic silhouette as it rose higher and higher. “Shit! Sit down!” Yelled Jill as she pushed everything back to full and the shuttle lurched forward, knocking Rihlus into his seat for him.

Down they flew and the Reaper began charging its red beam as the shuttle got closer.   
“Go above it!” Rihlus ordered. Jill slowly dragged the shuttle over the top of the Reaper causing the first beam to completely miss its target.   
“There! head straight there!” Rihlus pointed towards the only visible land on the screen. Down and down the shuttle went, the Reaper attempting to turns its enormous bulk as quickly as it could. 

Through some thick cloud the shuttle flew and, as it broke free, the entire city of London lay before them. For a few seconds it seemed calm, burning but calm. Off to the right an enormous dark patch shadow their view.   
“What the hell is that?!” Jill exclaimed, trying to make out the odd shape that clearly wasn’t a building. Before they could figure it out, the object answered for them. With a quick charge of energy, a brilliant white light fired up into the sky just metres to the shuttles sides, attempting to burn them out of the skies. The beam moved sideways slightly towards its target as it fired. 

“Fuck, Rihlus hold on!” Yelled Jill, as she struggled to move the shuttle fast enough to evade the beam. Without the skill necessary to evade such heavy firepower, the beam cut into the side of the shuttle as it faded. The two Asari in the rear began screaming as air rushed into the cabin. Jill’s console began flashing lights like a christmas display.   
“Fuck it, Rihlus I can’t land it!” Jill yelled over the wind. She took her hands away from the console and held onto her harness, as did Rihlus.

The shuttle fell from the sky, floating forwards from their natural momentum. The remaining buildings reached out to them as they fell from the city. Skipping past a few of the tallest towers and slamming into the roof of another, the shuttle bounced, skipped and crashed directly into the side of a tall silver skyscraper.


	23. Safe and Sound

“ckett. Stay inside and away from combat zones. If you are in urgent need contac..” The crashed shuttles power cut out as Jill awoke, hanging sideways from her seat. With a groan she checked for any missing limbs or intruding Turians.   
“Urgh, better… then last time” she breathed. Looking over to where Rihlus had been sitting, the Turian was resting normally, strapped into his chair but unconscious.

“Rihlus..” Jill croaked through a thin haze of smoke. When he didn’t move Jill fumbled with her straps and slid out onto the floor. The shuttle had landed right way up so Jill slowly stumbled over to Rihlus chair and shook him lightly.   
“Rihlus, get up, c’mon.” His breathing was steady and after a few shakes, Rihlus blinked awake, eliciting similar groans to Jill. 

“You good?” Jill asked, looking over him for injuries. Rihlus ran his hands down his legs, checking for the same thing.   
“Yeah, i’m ok, you?” Jill grunted as she reached for the door leading into the cabin. The Asari weren’t anywhere to be seen but the door to the shuttle was wide open. Half the door was resting on the ground outside while the other was missing completely. “The other two are gone.” Jill said as she poked her head back into the cockpit. 

Rihlus coughed as he clambered out of his seat.   
“We have ..to leave, there might be something coming to investigate.” Rihlus said, grasping at the walls to steady himself. The shuttles power flickered briefly, lighting up the pairs surroundings briefly, before fading again.   
“Did you hear something?” Jill asked, looking up to the speakers.   
“Yeah, static.” Rihlus agreed. The two stood in silence, waiting for a repeat of the noise. After a minute, Rihlus began heading for the door.   
“We need to leave Jill, need to leave the city” Jill nodded her agreement, still eyeballing the shuttle speakers.

Scrambling out of the shuttle, the pair found themselves inside of an office building, desks blasted out of the way as a result of the crash. The building had no power and the low light made progress slow. With a crash, Rihlus tripped over an inverted table, landing face first on the floor.   
“Rihlus?!” Jill called in a whisper, not able to see him well enough.   
“Yup, i’m good, i’m good, just tripped.” He said, pulling himself up off the ground. as they reached the entrance to the office room, a soft glow could be seen, filling the corridor. “There, stairs” Jill said, pointing towards a fire exit a few metres away.   
“What’s the plan when we’re out?” Jill said, resting against the wall.   
“Well, get out of the city firstly. Then, i dunno, head somewhere safer, find food.” Jill thought about this before replying.   
“What about you? How do we keep you fed.” Rihlus chuckled   
“I’ll be ok for now, I can’t go forever on your food, but…yeah, it might be a problem eventually.” Jill laughed as well.   
“You know, Humans are usually less morbid.” Rihlus was about to reply but just then, an orange flash lit the room. 

Jill jogged over to a window at the far end of the hallway. Several kilometres away, an explosion was dissipating and the sound of gunfire was echoing across the dead city. Rihlus ambled up alongside Jill.   
“If there’s fighting nearby we leave and go the other way.” Said Rihlus, not exactly asking for Jill’s opinion. He didn’t need to, Jill snapped around, nodded, and aimed back towards the safety exit again, Rihlus in tow.

The silent trip down was only broken by the echo of gunfire becoming more frantic. But, as the duo hit the bottom floor it stopped.   
“I didn’t expect it to be so quiet.” Rihlus said, a little louder now. Jill examined the entrance, it was in fact a corporate building, a few bodies lay behind the entry desk already showing signs of decomposition, their clothing sporting a company logo.   
“Can we take anything useful?” Rihlus asked, watching over Jill as she began pulling draws open.   
“It’s been too long, there’s nothing here, I guess these guys were lucky though, no Husk for them.” replied Jill, careful not to make contact with the bodies.

Rihlus left Jill to search while he kept watch for anything approaching. While he waited, a faint humming floated into the building.   
“What the hell is that?” Asked Jill, raising her voice as the humming began to compete. “Sounds like shuttles!” Rihlus replied, almost shouting now as the sound became a low roar. Jill ran out from behind the desks, keeping low but joining Rihlus at the windows. “Please tell me that’s what I think it is” Jill said to herself.


	24. Hell on Earth

“It is!” Jill shouted, scrambling to her feet and rushing through the giant glass doors of the building. Rihlus tried to grab her but missed completely. By the time he stood, Jill was in the streets, head craned back, watching the skies.   
“Jill!” Rihlus yelled as he pushed through the same doors, both trying to get her attention and see what was happening.   
“Look!” was all Jill shouted back, a Joy he hadn’t seen or heard from her in a long time.

Reaching her side, Rihlus looked up to see wave after wave of shuttles floating down from the clouds and over the city. An orange flash lit the skies as seconds later a shuttle, burning and trailing smoke, spiralled down to its doom. The weaponry that brought it down was almost impossible to hear over the sound of the engines of hundreds of Alliance Shuttles.

At the end of the street, a shuttle flew down low, slipping in between the buildings and aiming straight for Rihlus and Jill. Jill saw it first and ran ahead, waving her arms.   
“Here! Please!” Jill cried out. Rihlus joined her, both trying to grab the attention of their potential saviours. The shuttle lowered itself, coming to a stop right next to the pair. The doors to the ship opened revealing a full cabin of armed soldiers, peering out to see why they had stopped.   
“Please, we need to get out!” Rihlus shouted up to the shuttles occupants. A tall, pale man leaned out from the cabin and shouted down to them.   
“We can’t take you! Head south, there’s safety there!” The man ducked down and picked up a small metal box and threw it down to them.   
“Here! Now go! Stay away from the fighting!” And with that, the shuttle raised itself back up and continued on down the street and out of sight. 

Jill ran over to the box. A smallish, black metal case with a red cross, Jill undid the seal and opened it. Inside she found an assortment of energy bars, chocolate, condensed Milk and some Medi-Gel. Rihlus crouched down next to Jill   
“Here, let’s get it inside, we’re exposed out here” He said, taking a few of the items Jill had scattered and heading back into the building.

Inside, Jill checked the box again and on the opposite side was another smaller compartment that slid out. Inside were three tubes of Dextro-Amino rations.   
“Here, Rihlus, can you eat these?” Jill asked, holding them up and chucking one to Rihlus as he approached.   
“Yeah, they’re disgusting but it’ll keep me alive.” He replied, not overly enthusiastic.   
“Ok, where to?” Jill asked.   
“That way, the opposite way they arrived.” Rihlus said, pointing his sharp Talon up the street. We need to get away from any fighting and if…” Rihlus cut himself off as he threw himself down over Jill and pushed them both into the space behind the desks. He put his Talon over his mouth, signalling to be quiet. Jill made a “What is it?” Gesture and Rihlus held up his Talon, pretending to shoot. 

The warbled speech and cries from the Reaper troops heading through the street were unmistakable. As they prowled up the street a loud crash, followed by the sound of rubble shifting and collapsing, ignited gunfire from the Reapers. Both Jill and Rihlus peeked over the desk to see an Alliance vehicle slowly pushing down the street with Alliance soldiers trailing behind, firing towards the Reaper forces ahead. The vehicle fired its main cannon but missed everything in front of it. A loud, guttural roar echoed in response.    
A slight tremor in the ground became stronger and stronger as an enormous brute of an enemy stumbled up the road, knocking down its own allies to reach the Alliance vehicle. The Vehicle fired another shell and it collided directly with the Brute’s face. If it caused any damage it wasn’t visible and as the Brute reached the vehicle, it clambered aboard and using its largest metallic claw, cleaving the cannon straight off of the top. As the weapon fell to the ground, the Brute raised its claw again and pierced it straight through and into the vehicle, twisting and tearing its way through the armoured exterior.

The soldiers behind the tank fired wildly at the Brute and, eventually it took offence long enough to divert its attention away. Climbing down off the vehicle the Brute smashed its claws into its attackers. Its size didn’t hamper its movement and any Soldiers trying to duck away were met with a quick, life ending blow from the enormous claw.

The constant assault took its toll on the Brute however and, after the sustained punishment, a final grenade detonation right underneath it finished the beast off. The other Reaper forces however began pushing forward and pressing the Alliance soldiers into taking another street and retreating. The Reaper troops didn’t slow down and, seeing an opening Rihlus leant down to Jill.   
“When I say go, follow me and run that way, up the street.” Jill nodded and braced herself against the desk, ready to leap into action. 

The last Reaper forces pushed into the street, firing wildly at their targets.   
“Now” Rihlus said, not too loud as to attract any attention. The pair, having pocketed what they could carry, ran out across the lobby and through the doors. Before they even reached halfway across the street, Rihlus shouted in pain, stumbling in front of Jill and crashing into the street.   
“Rihlus!” Jill called out as she slid over to him. Bullets were firing again as more Reaper troops poured in, a second wave to support the first. Rihlus dragged himself behind some cover as Jill tried to pull him simultaneously.


	25. 72% Polymer

“Where!” Jill shouted, struggling to stay low as bullets snapped at their only protection.   
“My leg…” Rihlus grunted, voiced tinged with pain as he looked down at the wound. Blood oozed out of his thigh, the bullet had gone in but not out. Jill tried to unseal the Medi-Gel but couldn’t find the spare second to concentrate.

All of a sudden the gunfire stopped smacking into Jill and Rihlus cover. The weapons kept firing but not at them. Jill used the opportunity to unseal and apply some medi-gel to Rihlus leg.   
“Ok! You should be good for a while!” Jill yelled into his ear. Rihlus attempted a thumbs up motion. Jill smiled but was distracted by another loud hum. This time, assuming it was another ship, Jill looked to the end of the street. Instead of seeing a shuttle Jill was met with a solid silver warship, floating quickly towards their position. Randomly, as it moved, small objects appeared to drop off of it into the streets below.

“Shit, Rihlus, there’re more coming, we need to move!” Grabbing Rihlus and hoisting him across her shoulder, Jill began to lift Rihlus up before he collapsed, his leg slipping and sending him back onto his rear. The silver vessel picked up its speed and, positioning itself over Jill and Rihlus combat zone, ejected more of the smaller objects. With a whistle and three metallic thuds, the objects crashed down, unfolded and began firing upon the Reapers. Jill poked her head above the cover and saw one of the new arrivals heading directly for them, it’s singular bright eye peering at them as it marched closer.

“Human, do not be alarmed, we are here to aid you, are you injured?” It said, striding around the cover as more of the Reapers tried to fire on it. Jill remained motionless as the synthetic intruder offered its hand.   
“Are you injured?” It repeated again, but within seconds of asking, a stream of bullets carved through it’s robotic shell, severing its “head”. The fragments of metal showered Jill and Rihlus. Jill was about to peek over again to see what remained of the others, but a shrill, ear piercing scream froze her in place. Rihlus however wormed his way onto his side and looked around their rubble from below.

The two remaining Synthetic combatants continued firing, bullets sizzled past them but their continued movement both forward and sideways between cover seemed enough to protect them from the Reapers poor aim. From behind the Reaper forces a tall, thin, ghostly creature crept forward through the Reaper pack. After only a few metres the tall Reaper leant forward, releasing another deafening scream before vanishing from sight for a split second and re appearing a few metres further from where it was. Again and again it teleported forward until it stood right in front of one of the Synthetic fighters. Raising one arm above its head the Reaper thrust its arm into the Synthetic, lifting it up and with its other arm, tore the entire top half of the Synthetic in half. 

Seeing this, Rihlus and Jill made another attempt to leave. Finally standing up, Jill draped Rihlus arm over her shoulder again and made towards the hole in a building that the Alliance Vehicle had made earlier. 20 Metres shy of the hole, Jill slid to a halt as yet another Synthetic exited onto the streets. Its singular, shining eye peered down at the pair, then towards the lone Synthetic fighting the Reapers. The new Synthetic, twice as large as the previous ones, walked past the pair and raised its weapon at the Reapers. With a loud whirring, the gun began to fire. The screaming Reaper was the first to suffer the assault. It attempted to fling an attack from its hands but the Synthetic warrior didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. Marching onward the stream of gunfire punched through the Reaper, tearing through it and severing one of its legs. Once dead the surviving Synthetic from before fell back to join its larger comrade, firing into the now dwindling Reaper force.

The tall Reaper screamed as it fell, disintegrating into ash within seconds. The Remaining forces fell to the hail of gunfire from the large Synthetic, the sounds of battle ceasing for the moment, though in the distance the distinct roar of Reaper ships and heavy artillery could still be heard. Rihlus rested his arm over Jill’s shoulder as the duo attempted to leave the area through the hopefully empty hole in the wall. Heavy footfalls approached faster then they could move and, turning his head slightly to see their pursuer, Rihlus motioned for Jill to stop as the tallest of the Synthetics approached them.   
“It’s a Geth, it would have killed us by now.” Rihlus said, turning around slowly.   
“Are you injured?” The Geth asked, its voice much deeper than the last.   
“Yes, I’ve been shot in the leg, my friend isn’t but her leg isn’t doing so well either.” Replied Rihlus, gesturing to his wound and Jill. 

“I’m ok” Jill interjected “Just a bit sore and we put some Medi-Gel on his leg”.   
“Are you intending to go through here?” the Geth asked, gesturing its mechanical arms toward the hole it had crawled out from.   
“That’s the plan.” Agreed Rihlus, “But we don’t know where is safe” The Geth’s eye flashed brighter and appeared to flicker as it scanned its head from side to side. “This area is clear. Continue on through here until you reach a bridge. There is safety there.” It said, then turned on its heal and rejoined its compatriot.   
“You hadn’t seen one before had you?” Rihlus asked as Jill positioned herself under his arm again. “Nope, the way you described them from last time, they were less talkative.” Rihlus grunted as they turned to leave. “Things change I guess.”


	26. Dying London

“Argh, how much…farther” Rihlus winced with pain as they shuffled through the ruined street. Jill had started to stumble under Rihlus weight, her leg only capable of so much strain.   
“I dunno, I see fighting up ahead though.” Jill replied breathless. Rihlus raised his arm off of Jill’s shoulders, attempting to walk on his own.

Only a few hundred meters away, Rihlus could see the fighting Jill had mentioned. Flashes of gunfire, the misshapen figures of Reaper combatants and a single armoured vehicle parked in the middle of it all. Jill grabbed at Rihlus’ arm, holding him to stop.   
“We can’t just run out there, we can barely move.” Jill said, moving to sit under a collapsed building threshold.   
“I figured someone would see us, try to give us directions” Rihlus said, standing watch, shaking his head as he spoke. “Maybe we…” Rihlus began but before he could finish the rumble of an engine and yelling of human soldiers sounded from the direction the duo had come. Jill leapt to her feet as Rihlus ran into the street to flag down their allies.

“Hello! Please we need help!” Rihlus shouted, waving his arms as he called out. The vehicle didn’t stop but continued up and on to the curb then passed them. The soldiers behind however came running over.   
“You can’t be here, please find safety we can’t be looking out for civilians.” The soldier stated, clearly exhausted and not looking for an argument.   
“We just need directions, help to get past the fighting ahead” Jill interjected, pointing towards the end of the street. The soldier opened his mouth to respond but another soldier butted in.   
“Just follow us, when we get to the square, head left down the street and find a building to hole up in. Wait there and we’ll send you in the right direction when things calm down.” The second soldier gave Rihlus a pat on the back as he moved past, then jogged to catch up to the vehicle.   
“Finally some luck” Jill chuckled weakly. “C’mon, lets go. Not far.” She grabbed Rihlus’ arm and swung it over her shoulder to help him keep moving.

Sticking close to the buildings on their side of the street, Jill and Rihlus hobbled their way towards the entry to the fighting. It wasn’t in fact a Square but an old, burned down park. A small fence that now lay flat on the ground, lined the outside of what once would have been a sea of green trees surrounding a peaceful retreat for residents of the city. Now all the vegetation had burned or collapsed with bodies strewn around them and spot fires lingering on. The Alliance forces on the left of the pairs position were well protected with makeshift barricades and yet another armoured truck. Their enemy were streaming across a half broken bridge, shooting wildly at the first thing they saw. Those who made it across the bridge at least.

Rihlus weakly pulled Jill left in the direction of the Alliance forces. Staying low, the pair clambered over and hid behind rubble as they crept alongside the confrontation. They kept moving slowly until two large explosions detonated nearby, sending dust and heated stone flying in all directions. Rihlus and Jill covered their faces and crawled into cover. A distant roar of a Reaper sounded over the frantic combat and from the clouds an enormous Reaper ship landed farther into the city, towards a giant beam of light shooting into the sky. As it landed it began firing its red beam immediately, over and over. Another roar echoed across the gunfire, and, suspecting it was merely the same Reaper Jill and Rihlus took the chance to move further down the sidewalk. But at the end of the street towering over the city was another smaller Reaper ship, marching gradually down the street. It’s legs managed to be spilt into two parallel streets giving it access to a clear path forwards.

“Into the building quick!” Rihlus urged, half pushing Jill through a broken doorway. Rihlus stayed and rose up onto his feet, waving his arms towards the Alliance soldiers.   
“Hey! Over there! Reaper!” He shouted. A few soldiers saw Rihlus and gestured for him to stay down. He tried again but the soldiers ignored him.   
“C’mon, leave them Rihlus we need to get inside!” Jill shouted, reaching through the doorway and grabbing Rihlus by the back of his head, yanking him indoors. 

“Ugh! Dammit, careful!” He yelled, swatting Jill’s hand away. Once inside Jill began searching for an escape. The approaching Reaper could be heard and felt now, crunching its way closer, it’s beam not yet firing.   
“Here! Stairs!” Jill shouted, pointing and climbing upwards. The building was in bad shape and the stairs shifted angle several times. With every step of the Reaper, dust floated down onto their heads. Rihlus trailed behind Jill until he caught her, trying to force a piece of collapsed stairs up and out of their way.   
“Help me lift!” She grimaced. Rihlus joined her but after a few attempts knew there was nothing they could do to move it.   
“Jill stop, it’s not gonna work, we need to hide” Rihlus breathed as he backed away, exhausted, looking for an alternative. 

Outside, the gunfire was drowned out by the Reaper beginning its assault on the Alliance forces. Jill edged closer to a window to see what was happening. The Reaper wasn’t quite at their building but the Soldiers were now trying to retreat to the opposite side of the street. The Reaper forces crossing the bridge numbered in the dozens and were pushing closer and closer to their goal. One by one Alliance soldiers were brought down in the hail of gunfire. One of the Vehicles remained, firing at the swarming Reapers however, the Reaper Vessel had come far enough to fire at it. With a single shot the Armoured vehicle was split in half then exploded in a shower of fire, taking a few Reaper troops with it.

Without warning, specks of dust snapped off the walls around Jill as below them, a small group of the Bulbous Reapers had seen her through the window.   
“Ahh! Shit Rihlus they know we’re here” she shouted, nearly falling over as she recoiled from the window. Rihlus hobbled towards her and pulled Jill with him into a small room at the far end of the building. As they got inside Rihlus slammed the old fashioned door and felled a large shelf to block it.   
“Find anything else to stop them!” He strained as his leg began bleeding again.   
“We need to be able to leave quickly” Jill said as she moved a small table in front of the entrance.   
“I know, i know, we’ll wait till it dies down. I don’t think we have a choice.” The pair froze as they heard the first of the distorted shrieks and gurgles of the Reaper troops. Jill moved backwards across the room, while Rihlus stayed ready to brace the door. The pair exchanged panicked glances as the sounds drew closer.


	27. Destruction - The End

Reaching the room outside the Reaper forces began filing in and searching for their prey. Within seconds the door began to shudder as the first of the Reapers began pounding from the other side.

The pair moved backwards across the room, looking for anything to defend themselves. But as Rihlus picked up and snapped the head off of a Broom, a bright Red Flash lit the surrounding area, then disappeared. One of the Reapers broke its arm through a crack in the door frame giving Rihlus and Jill a fractional view into the room outside. Beyond it however, in the city outside, a red light still lingered.  
“Jill? What’s happening?!” Rihlus asked, backing away from the door. He looked to Jill who just stared through the crack. A slight rumble began to shake the building before an intense wave of warmth washed through them and the entire room, visible even to them.

Jill stumbled back, looking around, patting herself down. She looked towards Rihlus who shook his head unsure of what happened.  
“Look!” Jill said, pointing to the doorway which now stayed silent and the small hole empty. Before either could move, the entire building shook uncontrollably and the distinct crack of the structure collapsing sounded. Through the middle of the room a split in the walls and floor raced across and before Jill could reach Rihlus her entire side of the building dropped a foot, then began to crumble. The walls and floor fell at the same time as the entire section of the building simply fell away. 

“Jill no!” Rihlus shouted as he leapt forward, attempting to grab Jill’s arm as she made a final effort to lunge to safety. Her hand brushed his as she made the distance but the floor fell away underneath her taking Jill with it. Rihlus crawled backwards as parts of the roof crashed down, landing close to his position.

Before he was sure if it was over, Rihlus darted forward and leaned over the edge of the now gaping hole in the building.  
“JILL!!” Rihlus shouted into the rubble. No response. There was no safe way down but the stairs so, tearing away the barricades Rihlus barged through the door heading for the stairs. No Reapers were outside, nothing but a faint ash strewn across the floor. Not stopping to examine Rihlus hopped towards the same stairs they climbed up.

At the bottom Rihlus hobbled out into the street to find the Reaper Vessel laying flat across the ground just in front of the bridge. No Reapers beside the ship were outside either. Rihlus limped down the side of the street to where Jill fell. “Jill!” He shouted as he began to clamber over the rubble. He saw her immediately. She was lying on her back with her lower half buried underneath a large chunk of stone and metal.  
“Jill! I’m here, hold on!” Rihlus stumbled across as he raced to reach her.

Blood and Dust covered her face and chest as she moaned, semi conscious.  
“Rih..lus?” She whispered, trying to push on the piece of building on top of her.  
“No no, don’t move” Rihllus said panic struck, grabbing her hands and holding them away from her abdomen. Jill opened her eyes slowly as Rihlus wiped off the worst of the dust from her face.  
“Hey, you scared the shit out of me” He said, sitting down so that he could bring his head closer to hers.  
“What did we do?” Jill asked, confused. She began looking around at the destruction above her.  
“The building collapsed and you fell. You’re trapped under some of it, can you feel anything?” Jill appeared to think really hard before nodding.  
“Yeah, sort of. My left leg is numb though, but my right is sore. Rihlus breathed a sigh of relief.  
“That’s good, that’s good. I think we need to stay here for now.” He chuckled. 

Panic took over Jill’s face as something crossed her mind.  
“Wait, you need to go! The Reapers!” She said, pushing Rihlus away.  
“No, it’s ok look” Rihlus said as he shifted to the side, showing Jill the legs of the downed Reaper.  
“What? Did something happen?” She said, still not convinced.  
“After you fell I ran outside and no Reapers were there, same out here. I think that red light killed them.” Jill stared blankly at him.  
“Red light?” She said.

“Hello! Is anyone alive out there?!” A distant voice drifted across the park. Rihlus turned to face it.  
“Yes! Over here!” Rihlus replied, moving to get up. “Jill, i’ll be back in a sec ok? We’re going to get you out of here soon.” Jill nodded, barely, and gave Rihlus’ hand a strong squeeze.  
“I know.” She said, smiling faintly and resting her head on the ground. 

Standing and walking back out into the open, Rihlus could see three Alliance Soldiers. Unarmed and bloodied, the three were just heading into a crumbling fast food store.  
“Hey! Here! I need help!” Rihlus shouted as he hobbled towards the Soldiers. Upon seeing him they abandoned their task and ran towards him.  
“Sir are you alright?” Rihlus shooed them away as they tried to attend to his leg.  
“Not me, my friend is trapped under a collapsed building, over here”. Rihlus turned and guided the Soldiers back towards Jill.  Wiping the dust from her eyes was becoming harder, her left side was starting to numb. She could barely feel her fingers anymore and whilst she told Rihlus her leg was numb the truth was she couldn’t feel it at all, nor her right. Her fingers were also tingling and she was having trouble moving them to wipe her face let alone raise her arm. The heavy footsteps of Rihlus became louder, joined by several others.  
“Here! She’s trapped.” He said, clambering over the stone chunks to reach her again. “Hey, I brought some help” Rihlus said, awkwardly sitting down on the opposite side to allow the soldiers to aid.  
“Hey..umm, i’m kind of.. headache.” She said before closing her eyes.  
“Wait, no Jill! Hey c’mon” Rihlus started, grabbing her head  
“Wait, sir please, she’s probably unconscious” one of the soldiers said as he moved his arm away and started checking her status.  
“She’s breathing, but she probably has a spinal injury did she say anything about what she could feel below her chest?” The man asked as he tried to see under the rubble clamping Jill down.  
“Ah, yeah, she was feeling numb, her left leg. She already had an injury from a while ago though…” Rihlus replied, talking fast, eyes not leaving Jill.  
“We can move this but we need to be careful, you..” he pointed to the furthest of the three soldiers “..while we move the rubble, you hold her steady, head and neck, don’t let them shift.”

Rihlus and two of the Soldiers moved to the highest side of the rubble and began simultaneously heaving it. Gradually it began to move and lift off of Jill. As the large chunk of building released Jill she woke and cried out in pain, the man assigned to her head holding her down as best he could.  
“Quick, c’mon one more!” The lead soldier shouted as together they pushed a final time and dragged the concrete away and down into the street.

Rihlus leapt down as soon as it rolled away and took over from the soldier holding her down.  
“Please, i’ve got her” He said, nudging the man out of the way.  
“Tommy, we need a stretcher, I think Jude’s gear is still in the street over there.” The leader commanded. Jill began to calm down as Rihlus held her head, gently releasing his grip. “Hey, it’s over, you’re free, just stay still ok?” Rihlus said, looking down towards her legs. Her right leg was bent at the ankle, but her left leg appeared crushed. “Here, keep looking at me ok? Just relax, we’re gonna get you to a hospital soon.” Jill whimpered as bursts of pain shot up her body but she nodded weakly and reached for Rihlus’ hand which she grabbed and held tightly.

The lead soldier approached Rihlus as the scuffle of feet indicated the search for a stretcher had finished.  
“Sir, can we talk?” he said, placing his hand on Rihlus’ shoulder. Rihlus turned briefly to face him.  
“Um, sure, just gimme a second.” Rihlus replied, shuffling himself to leave.  
“Jill, these guys are gonna move you now, it’s probably going to hurt ok but it’ll be over in a second.” Jill nodded silently, eyes closed and giving his hand a squeeze before letting go. Rihlus moved over to join the Soldier, waiting for him in the street.  
“I’m sorry about your friend, but she’s got more trouble coming. We called for a shuttle but everything is dead, anything tech anyway.” Rihlus nodded, checking over his shoulder as he heard Jill moaning from the attempts to move her. “She’s probably got a broken ankle from the looks of it, but her left leg, i dunno, i’ve seen better, a lot better.”   Rihlus watched on as the soldiers slowly began to lift Jill onto the stretcher.  
“Did you see what happened?” Rihlus said, turning from Jill to face the vanquished Reaper.  
“That? Uh, well we… it’s a bit complicated, I don’t even know the whole story but we had a plan to bring them down once and for all, I guess it worked.” A cry from Jill broke Rihlus’ trance.  
“Will she be ok?” He asked the Soldier who sighed and scratched his neck.  
“I’m not a doctor but if we can get her to a hospital soon she might be fine.” The soldier replied, trying his best to seem comforting.  
“Ok, they’re down, let’s go, F.O.B wasn’t too far from here. Can you walk?” The Soldier asked Rihlus. “Not great but i’ll be fine to keep up.” The Soldier left and took the lead, carefully guiding the group up the street the Reaper once dominated, carefully scanning the area for any threats.

Rihlus stayed behind to walk alongside Jill’s stretcher.  
“Hey, you doing ok?” He asked, to which Jill made no response.  
“She fell unconscious just before we left” Said the rear most Soldier carrying the stretcher. “Might be a while before she wakes up. She’s looking pretty rough” he added, but Rihlus didn’t reply. Instead he kept silent all the way to the Military outpost where Jill was taken into what was once a small office, now a rudimentary surgery. Medics, Soldiers, Doctors, Nurses, all ran back and forth between other offices as they both attended to patients and attempted to make space for the many more to come.

Finding a fairly flat piece of fallen wall outside, Rihlus sat down and waited. The pain from his leg was barely noticeable now and frankly, he was just tired. Leaning back on the wall, Rihlus watched the staff go by until he drifted off to sleep for what felt like the first time in a year.

Two Days Later

  Jill blinked her eyes open as something bumped into her cannula.  
“Ugh, ow” Jill grumbled, searching for the culprit.  
“Oh, hey did I wake you?” Rihlus’ voice whispered from her side. The room was dark but the dawn light was starting to appear through a hole in the wall across the room.  
“Yes, you… nevermind. Where are we?” Asked Jill, trying to rise up from the bed. Rihlus pushed her back down before bringing up his Omni Tool and making a few selections before closing it and kneeling down next to the bed.  
“Do you remember the building collapse?” Rihlus asked. Jill nodded tiredly.  
“Yeah, I fell?” She asked, starting to feel slight pain from her leg.  
“Right, well we brought you here, it’s a hospital, sort of. The doctors here have been fixing you up. I just asked them to come in and…” 

As Rihlus was about to finish, an elderly woman marched through the open doorway holding a datapad and tapping away furiously on it.  
“Hi, she’s awake? Good, so, i’m Doctor Finley, how are you today?” Jill exchanged looks between Dr Finley and Rihlus before answering  
“Did you guys cut my leg off?” She asked bluntly. Dr Finley smiled and gave a small chuckle.  
“Your legs are still very much attached, but since you’re insistent we did need to perform surgery on your left and right legs. Your left leg had suffered a break in both your Femur and Femoral Shaft, as well as your Right Leg.” Jill lay back in the bed, letting out a long sigh of relief.  
“We are yet to determine if there is any significant nerve damage to your legs which appears highly likely. If so we’ll do what we can to help but things aren’t what they used to be. We’ll be keeping you here for another day or two while we run a few tests and i’ll be back in an hour to do a proper analysis with you to see your sensations and such. But, for now, just rest.” Doctor Finley turned to leave before stopping “Oh! and before I forget we’ve got you on some pain medication, so for the love of God don’t take your Cannula out. We’ve had enough of that today with the other wounded.” Jill gave a thumbs up as the Doctor left.  “She was being nice but we’ll need to be getting out soon.” Said Rihlus as he stood and strode over to observe the view outside.  
“I’ll be right, we’ll just find someone to take us home.” Jill replied nonchalantly. Rihlus looked over at Jill who was attempting to pull herself up in the bed.  
“That’s not likely. Things have changed Jill.” He began, staring out at the silent desolate world outside. “There’s no power, this building is running on who knows what. I had to find a new power source for my Omni Tool and even then it’s just been erased. There’s nothing on it. And there’s no ships able to fly. None that we’ve seen. It’s like someone hit a big reset button on everything.” Jill just rested her head against the wall behind her eyes staring at the ceiling.  
“Honestly Rihlus, I couldn’t give a shit. I’m in pain, i’m hungry, i’m cold, I remember falling. I remember being so scared. I just want something to eat, then we can work things out from there. Sound good?” Rihlus slowly made his way to the doorway.  
“Got a preference?” He asked.  
“Just something hot. And Bacon, lots of Bacon.”

Removing the sheets covering her legs Jill decided to face the music and see the damage. Makeshift wrappings held down what little coverings were available to protect the surgery site. It was red and despite the pain relief was beginning to throb with a dull ache. Her left leg was worse, bruising all the way down to below her knee and then again near her ankle. Her right leg was in better shape, but still had the coverings from surgery. Attempting to move her legs was a bad idea, as soon as she willed them into motion they replied with a sudden bout of pain shooting right up her entire body.  
“AH! Fuck… dammit” Jill shouted as she collapsed backwards into the bed, exhausted from the effort and pain. Someone popped through the door suddenly.  
“Are you ok miss?” The person asked, unsure whether to come closer or not.  
“Yup, fine, i’m fine.” Jill replied waving the unknown person away.

As the person left, Rihlus came back through the door, looking back towards the recent visitor.  
“Who was that?” Rihlus asked, hands full of different boxes of food.  
“Nothing, I just tried to move and it went bad.” Jill answered, annoyance evident in her voice.  
“Believe it or not I found you some Bacon, here.” Rihlus said, handing her a small sealed container filled with sandwiches.  
“I think you found Ham, but same animal, thanks.” Jill opened the box and began devouring her prey.  
“Do they have anything for you?” She asked, mouth full of food. Rihlus nodded as he sat down on a chair near the bed.  
“Yeah, not amazing but it’ll keep me alive, here..” Rihlus leant forward showing Jill the contents of his box. Jill attempted to sniff what appeared to be fish, but recoiled immediately.  
“Urgh… well, as long as you like it. What is it?” She asked. Rihlus shook his head as he slurped up a small portion.  
“No idea, tastes great though, can’t judge it by its appearance.” As the pair ate Dr Finley returned and began running small tests and getting a blood sample from Jill. 

After half an hour Jill fell asleep mid conversation.  
“Well, I can’t say i’m surprised, can you come get me when she wakes up, we still need to discuss some mobility issues she’s likely to have for some time. Rihlus nodded and stood as the Dr left.  
“I don’t mean to pry but are you and her together?” The Dr asked on her way out. Rihlus gave a small snort of laughter.  
“I get asked that a lot, no we aren’t. Just friends.” He replied and the Doctor nodded before continuing.  
“I’m not being gossipy, it’s just, there are a lot of people here on their own who weren’t a few days ago. You’re both very lucky.” Rihlus nodded solemnly  
“I understand, thank you.” Rihlus shook the Dr’s outstretched hand then returned to his chair at Jill’s bedside. 

As he sat down Jill rolled her head to face him, eyes barely open.  
“Did I fall asleep?” She asked tiredly. Rihlus nodded as he scooted his chair closer to Jill’s bed.  
“What did I miss?” Jill continued through a yawn.  
“Oh nothing much, but she thinks we’re a couple.” Rihlus said, laying back in his chair as Jill groaned. Rihlus raised his feet onto the end of the bed and nestled in for a nap.  
“Goodnight Jill” He said.  
“Goodnight Rihlus” Jill replied, burying her head into the pillow to block out the sunrise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking the time to read something that I should have posted far sooner. With Andromeda so close I can only hope that the impact this series has had on me thus far can continue on in a new galaxy.
> 
> Have a great day.


End file.
